Heavenly Promise: The Joy of Perfect Rest

One reality that every Christian faces on this side of heaven is our various limitations. We desire to love the Lord more, live wholly for him, become more like him, serve him more, rejoice in him more, and the list is endless. But sadly we are unable because sin limits us. However, in glory, we will be able to love the Lord with the incorruptible love, live wholly for him, and praise and serve him forever. I was reminded on this truth as I read Charles Huddon Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening devotions. In his devotional entry of the evening of January 18 taken from Hebrews 4:9, “So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,” Spurgeon writes,

How different will be the state of the believer in heaven from what it is here! Here he is born to toil and suffer weariness, but in the land of the immortal, fatigue is never known. Anxious to serve his Master, he finds his strength unequal to his zeal: his constant cry is, “Help me to serve you, O my God.” If he be thoroughly active, he will have much labour; not too much for his will, but more than enough for his power, so that he will cry out, “I am not wearied of the labour, but I am wearied in it.” Ah! Christian, the hot day of weariness lasts not forever; the sun is nearing the horizon; it shall rise again with a brighter day than you have ever seen upon a land where they serve God day and night, and yet rest from their labours. Here, rest is but partial, there, it is perfect. Here, the Christian is always unsettled; he feels that he has not yet attained. There, all are at rest; they have attained the summit of the mountain; they have ascended to the bosom of their God. Higher they cannot go. Ah, toil-worn labourer, only think when you shall rest forever! Can you conceive it? It is a rest eternal; a rest that “remains.

One thought on “Heavenly Promise: The Joy of Perfect Rest

  1. I feel I have little or no right to comment.

    The Lord has graciously called us to enjoy Him but only in service. I find it difficult but not impossible in His service because His calling comes with gracious power and wisdom and gracious answers for difficult situations.

    What I think is missing from my earlier Christian life was a desire to be like Christ without being a servant as clearly or definitely as He was on earth. Do you know He still serves the Father at His right hand and serves us in His work as Mediator?

    Anyway, my service now has more joy in it and growth in Him demands humility and cost as he says, no one ploughing should look back, and that we should lift up the crucifixion on our fleshly desires daily. In this is freedom and service and joy all belonging to Him as the Spirit in says He who for the joy set before Him suffered even the cross: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12.2

    If I may say this service should be in our homes, in the visible local church and in our communities and at our work or study. There we will find reasons to serve and the opportunities to witness of what suffering means and the purpose of our lives will shine out for Him.

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