Never Enter His Rest

"Who were they who heard and rebelled?
Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt?
And with whom was he angry for forty years?
Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?
And to whom did God swear
that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed?
So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief."
~Hebrews 3:16-19 (NIV)

Have you tasted God's goodness? His mercy? His grace? His kindness? His faithfulness? Have you experienced Him carrying you through trials and temptations? Have you been touched by His spirit and His Word? Have you been delivered from danger and evil?

There is a great certainty that those who profess to be Christians would answer 'yes' to most if not all of the above questions. That places them in the same category of the Israelites. They have tasted God's goodness, mercy and grace through His deliverance from slavery in Egypt. They have even been shown miracles and signs through the ten plagues that struck Pharaoh and his nation. Many other blessings indeed surround them because of God's faithfulness.

Yet! they were the very same people who "heard and rebelled", "with whom God was angry", "who sinned" and "whose bodies fell in the desert", "who disobeyed". Starkedly shocking.

One could logically assume that when one has tasted God's Goodness, mercy and grace, so kind, so miraculously merciful and gracious, would remain satisfied and content in them.

My friends, you and me, as long as we call ourselves Christians. We fall in the same category as the Israelites. We have tasted God's goodness, mercy and grace one way or another, but yet, if we are careless, complacent, ignorant, stagnant and we allow ourselves to be dulled, disatisfied, chilled, what doom awaits us; We would "never enter His rest".

May we never take His grace for granted
His blood shed cheapened
His body broken worthless
May our heart ever be more God-fearing
more Christ-centered,
our mind ever more fixed on Jesus,
our will ever more eternally re-ordered to His heartbeat