03_Strive to enter into His rest Gen 2:1 And so the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their heavenly lights. 2 By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and on the sixth day, He made humanity, forming man and woman in His image. Then, on the seventh day, God rested. This wasn’t because God was weary. The Almighty doesn’t tire. God’s rest was not inactivity. The Father is always at work. Rather, his rest was one of contentment. His work was complete, perfect, and beautiful. In creating humanity on the sixth day, God gave man the unique privilege of entering into His rest without any labour. From the very start, humanity was not created for endless toil. Our destiny is to find fulfillment and peace in God’s completed work. Adam stepped into a world where nothing needed improvement. He didn’t wake up to a list of tasks. There was no garden in need of planting. There was no chaos. He opened his eyes on a world already blessed, sanctified, and whole. Everything was finished; all was "very good." Adam and Eve were invited into this rest—a deep satisfaction and contentment, rooted not in what they had done, but in God’s perfect work. Today, our ideas of rest often fall short. For most of us, rest is escaping work. We go to sleep, take a vacation, or seek entertainment. None of these are inherently wrong. Yet they do not give us real peace. The mind, like a roaring sea, remains restless. The prophet Isaiah described the wicked as being like the restless sea, tossing up refuse and rest. They cannot find calm because they are consumed with striving and self-reliance. Unrest is due to unbelief and rebellion against God’s ways. The Israelites who left Egypt with Moses illustrate this truth. They thought leaving Egypt would bring them rest. Instead, their doubt and disobedience forced them to wander in the wilderness for forty years. After the next generation entered Canaan at last, they assumed this would finally bring peace. Yet, even Canaan couldn’t provide true rest. They constantly longed for things that they did not have. They did not have faith to be content with God’s provision and leading. As someone said, “It was easier for God to take Israel out of Egypt than to take Egypt out of Israel.” Rest is not a matter of circumstances. It’s not about our location. Rest is a condition of the heart. It is born of simple faith and obedience. Remember when the Israelites first stood on the border of Canaan, just a year after their miraculous deliverance from Egypt. They sent out twelve spies to survey the land. Ten returned to discourage the people. They saw only the giants. The challenges looked insurmountable to them. Their words caused