What Rest is About: Righteousness

What is rest all about in the Bible, anyway?

No, it is not about sitting down and doing nothing all day.

In fact, laziness betrays a deep unrest in our lives.

"As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed." (Proverbs 26: 14)

The connotations throughout this verse, in the original Hebrew, speak of condemnation and pain.

This verse affirms the sense of condemnation as the source of sloth in people's lives, too:

"The slothful man saith, There is a lion without, I shall be slain in the streets." (Proverbs 22: 13)

Whatever the motivation of the person in the verse, whether petty excuse or true fear, why does the Proverb writer write about "a lion in the streets" as opposed to a robber, or a hurricane?

Because a lion in the streets speaks of God's judgment.

So, what is rest about, then, if it is not sitting down and doing nothing?

It is about resting from dead works to make ourselves righteous before God the Father.

"Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God," (Hebrews 6: 1)

Repentance is about more than not sinning. It is about believing that we are OK with God and no longer spending our time trying to make ourselves right before God through our actions.

And that is exactly what I had been doing for a long time. I kept thinking that there was still something more that I needed to do to be OK in God's eyes.

All of that is wrong. All of that denies that Jesus did a perfect work at the Cross.

There is no  reason for us to go around and around trying to make ourselves OK, let alone feel OK in what we do. All of that starts with Him who has been from the beginning. Period.