God’s heart is being revealed again this month as He has graciously  declared this month to be our month of Divine Rest. From God’s  perspective, rest is not just to sleep or take a break from work. Rather,  rest means to cease trying to accomplish things in our human strength,  without involving God. For instance to receive enduring riches, you  have to stop trying to get rich by human means and turn to God’s way -  Proverbs 8:18. To live a holy life, you have to mortify the deeds of the  flesh through the help of the Holy Spirit because your self-efforts would only lead to frustrations – Romans 8:13.  

Since the fall of man through the sin of Adam, man has been under the  curse of perpetual struggles – Genesis 3:15-19. With the coming of  Jesus Christ however, God fulfilled His promise to bruise the head of  Satan and therefore free man from the curse if they would believe in  Jesus Christ and receive God’s gift of eternal life – Revelation 12:9-11;  John 3:16-18. This is why the Lord is inviting you to come to him to  find rest from struggles and pains by learning from Him - Matthew  11:28-30.  

Thus, the first step into rest is to come to Jesus Christ with one’s whole  heart. When this is done, we become saved from sin and the evils of this  world. Then we need to take the next step, which is to learn of Him. 

Next, we understand that rest is not automatic. We need to be fully  persuaded of the promise and have faith to obtain the promise of rest.  This is why we are urged to labour to enter into rest – Hebrews 4:9-11.  

In this month of Divine Rest, we will examine the kind of labour  required in order to enter into rest. Rather than labour on your own, I  pray that you will receive grace to commit all your worries and anxiety  into God’s hand. ……Pastor Adeoti