Sabbath Rest & A Faithful God - the Promise of Hebrews 10:23 - Episode#136

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Jan is the author of the new book “A 60-Day Prayer Journal for Parents” & “The Power of God’s Will – 40 Days of God’s Promises Devotional” (available on Amazon).  Find Jan on Instagram: @JanLBurt, TikTok @JanLBurt or at her website JanLBurt.com or at her YouTube channel, “God’s Promises for You with Jan L. Burt”.

 

Well hey there, hello to ya today. Hope you are doing well, growing in God’s grace, receiving all that the Lord has for you, blessing and encouraging others around you in your day to day life, just living for Jesus on a continual basis. Really, isn’t that what it actually means to be quote/unquote living the dream? And hey, just in case nobody has told you this today - you are pretty doggone fantastic. God put you in this world intentionally. He loves you so very much, and you are incredibly valuable to Him. That makes you one in a million. One in a zillion. I’m so thankful you’re listening today. Should we grab hold of a promise from the Bible and see what God has for us, those He so dearly loves?

You’re listening to The Burt (Not Ernie) Show podcast, part of the Spark Network, now playing on the Edifi app. This is episode number 136.

In the New Testament, there is this incredible, amazing, profound book. The book of Hebrews. It’s a winner winner chicken dinner kind of book, ya know what I mean? It grows me up whenever I read it, encourages me, emboldens me, increases my love for others and my heart for the Lord, it disciplines and it unites and it is powerful and so worth taking the time to read, to study, and of course to believe. When we read our Bibles, I hope that we end our time in God’s Word believing Him more than we did before we started reading. Like, that ought to be happening every single day. I actually mean this, not kidding at all, not just speaking fluffy words, but seriously. I mean this. Believe that what God has said in the Bible is exactly what He means. He meant it and He still means it. So, our job is to believe. To do the work of believing. And ya know what? That work of believing changes everything. 

 

Hebrews chapter ten, verse twenty-three in the Amplified says this:

 

Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and faithful and trustworthy (to His word).

 

The King James reads this way:

 

Let us hold fast to the profession of our faith without wavering; (for He is faithful that promised)

 

Now this is a verse to get excited about. I can stand on this one! And it is firm, it is solid, it will hold up under whatever may be pressing down on me. All I have to do is just what it says - hold fast. Seize it and hold tightly to the profession of our faith. The confession of our hope. Look, we need to be verbal and vocal about the Lord. I’m not talking about getting on a soapbox here, this is not about your social media presence. I want to encourage you, remind you, to say out loud to yourself, to the devil, to your little dog who is sleeping at your feet, say out loud that you are holding tightly, you are holding fast. Say out loud that you trust the Lord, that you know His Word is true, that His promises are for you, that the hope you have in Him is not misplaced, it is sure. It is certain. It is rock solid. And you will not be moved from your belief. Sometimes we need to say this to ourselves, out loud. Maybe even with our outside voices. Do you need to say it out loud today? Remind the devil of this verse. He will not, cannot win. The end game is finished. Jesus takes it all. Isn’t that great news? Seize it. Take hold of it, hold fast, hold tightly. And do it without wavering. 

 

You don’t hope in hope; you hope in God! You don’t hope in circumstances, bank balances, the state of the union or the state of the world. You hope in the Lord! Jesus did not remain in that grave, my friend. He is not there. He is risen, just as He said He would be. That is the One in whom you hope. His name is Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah.  And that is why we hold fast to the profession of our faith WITHOUT WAVERING. Because He who promised is faithful. I’ve said it many times before, but it’s so true and such a great reminder that I’m gonna say it again. He is faithful, and He cannot ever for a single solitary moment be unfaithful. The Lord won’t just oops, by accident be only partially faithful. He is always going to do what His word promises. Do not waver in your belief. The place you put your faith roots down matters. If that place is the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world, King Jesus, then you have good roots. You will be like a tree planted by streams of water, bearing fruit in season and out of season, stable and rooted so that you will grow stronger in life’s storms, not weaker. You have the Living Water. Jesus holds the keys to death and hell. He holds the very keys to life. You have what you need, all that you need, for all time if you have Jesus. So you ought to hold fast to the profession of your faith without wavering. When Jesus returns He will have two names written on him - Faithful and True, it says in the book of Revelation. Those are His names! And they tell us who He is! Faithful. True. You are in excellent hands. No need to waver when the One whose names are Faithful & True is your Lord. Isn’t that great news?!

 

Those last few words of this verse in the King James are so, so important.

 

For He who promised is faithful. 

 

You have probably heard that said many times. It comes straight from the Bible, right here in Hebrews 10:23.

 

For He, being God, who promised is faithful. Right now, He is faithful. Tomorrow, He will be faithful. And so on. His faithfulness won’t wear out or dry up or expire or anything like that. He is faithful and so He will keep on being faithful. God’s faithfulness remains. Isn’t that comforting?

 

It stays. It never recedes. It just simply IS. 

 

Breathe easy today, my friend. For He who promised is faithful. That’s your promise. And it is pretty critical to remember this truth today. I have a feeling that some of you listening are facing some stuff that is not good, not fun, sort of just plain icky. This is a perfect promise for you! He who promised is faithful. 

 

Your job is simply to seize and hold tightly the confession of your faith without wavering. 

 

Do you remember what it was like, that moment when you first realized how much Jesus loves you, that He died for you, that He was holding out forgiveness and eternal life to you? Like, the moment when you went all-in with Jesus because you knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He went all-out for you. He died to give you life. Remember what it was like to see that truth clearly, and to know it was yours? 

 

Don’t let this moment today pass by without remembering what it was like. Because that right there is the confession of your faith that you need to hold tightly to. Seize it anew today and hold on for dear life. Let times of refreshing come from the Lord. Ask Him to fill you today with overwhelming peace and joy, and believe that His will for you is good. And rest in Him, right in those hard places of your life, you truly can find rest. You are allowed to rest. Did you know that? He has things for you to do, Kingdom work, for sure. He wants you to love people and to go to your job and work well, as unto the Lord, for sure. And He has rest and peace of heart and mind for you, too - that is also for sure. Some of you need to know that the Lord has given you permission to rest, and to enjoy that rest. 

 

Look at how Jesus described the Sabbath in Mark chapter 2, verses 24 thru 28. The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. You are allowed to actually rest, and taking a day of rest is something both the Old and New Testaments say is good for us. 

 

Do what’s good for you. Do what Jesus told you to do. Obey Him because you love Him. Rest - have a weekly time of Sabbath rest. 

 

That is a big change for some of us. But listen, I was raised by a mother who was a worker. Growing up, there were a lot of years, like a lot of years in a row when mom only had one day off a year, and that was Christmas Day. I really am not exaggerating at all, not even the tiniest bit, when I say my mother worked 80-100 hours a week, week after week, every single week. That’s a lot of hours. She lived on a few hours of sleep each day for decades.

 

Work was obviously a huge focal point in my family as I was growing up. Not a lot of recreation, basically no vacations. Mom’s recreation was gardening, and that is work for sure. Resting was hard for her. So her kiddos, all six of us, have each been workers to some extent. But you know, for me, I got sidelined when my heart problems came about. Now I still did far more than I should have, I just kept going and going, and it did get to where I paid a steep price. My recovery time from mid-week long days would get longer…and then it got to worse and worse. Now I have never been confined to bed, like I have been told by cardiologists and electrophysiologists I should be, and I believe that is because I simply by faith choose to believe God’s promises more than anything else. But I did hit a point when I was literally forced to slow way down physically. Some days, I struggle with that. I get upset. I want to find a way to be able to do more, force myself into some different state of mind…but this is not a state of mind, and while I live by God’s promises alone, I can’t force God’s hand and do all the things I used to do. In a way, I am in a sort of long term Sabbatical rest mode, I guess. 

 

And my GRRR attitude at times, my desire to be able to do more and to quote/unquote improve my life by being able to do, do, do so much more…that has made it harder for me to actually rest in the Lord. Because the Sabbath rest isn’t just about catching a nap or chilling out for a couple of hours, maybe like sitting on the porch bird watching or something like that. It’s about God giving us rest. And when you are a worker, that kind of slow down and rest and just be with the Lord and receive from Him and just resting and knowing it is a gift from Him, well, it can be hard to actually relax. 

 

Practice it anyway, even though it is hard. It’s good for you, I promise. And also, it’s been hard to have this forced slow down due to my health. I’d much rather nobody else ever face a health diagnosis like heart failure and be able to take that weekly Sabbath rest and not hesitate to enjoy it and really recharge the way God wants you too, I’d rather that happen than being made to take the rest while sort of fighting against it. If God has it for you, then trust Him enough to take it from Him, knowing it is for your good and His glory. 

 

Because He who promised is reliable and faithful and trustworthy. 

 

I hope you walk today in more and more of the love of the Lord than you did yesterday or the day before that. His love for you is so deep and wide and high and vast, you’ll never really understand it fully in this life. But my prayer is that you understand is as much as you can, and that you experience more and more of that love daily.

 

Thanks for listening to the show today, and hey, don’t forget, if God is for you (and He is!) then who can be against you? Remember that truth today.

 

See you next time.