enering His rest

Hating sin and loving Jesus

Posted on May 16, 2023 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I totally get Paul’s lament in Romans 7:15: “For what I am working out, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.” Every day I ask the Lord for opportunities to obey. For the most part I do, but sometimes I don’t. I hate that. I love Jesus and I want to make a Kingdom difference, but when He presents something I still balk sometimes. As Paul said, “I don’t understand what I do…”

There are a lot of serious illnesses, heartaches, and tremendous difficulties facing our people. Many people are hurting in some way or another.

I am so, so, so sick of sin, in other people of course- isn’t it easier to hate sin in others? lol, but I truly hate it worse in myself. I hate my sin!!! I’m convinced that the Bible’s promises of entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1) do not mean rest from labors. We will be doing a lot of work on New Earth and New Jerusalem. Adam was created to work the garden. I am convinced the verse means rest from our struggles with sin. In our glorified bodies in a sinless world, we will no longer have to guard every thought, control the tongue, fail, confess, obey, and repeat the fleshly cycle. It’s tiring. I can’t wait for rest. I really can’t.

The best part thought is that He is so present in the world, and so active and alive in us. He is so gracious to accept my repentance when I fail, and to bless me afterwards with a peace that He knows my heart (and loves me anyway.) I love Him so much. We have the truest God and the best God possible.

bible jesus, enering His rest

Heaven Week #4: Rest

Posted on August 12, 2021August 14, 2021 by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Are the weeks getting longer, or is it just me? By the time Friday comes, I’m just too pooped to pop. Of course, I’m thrilled to have been working in a job I love, so no complaints there.

Weekends are an opportunity to rest and reflect on the week. Sundays are days for worship and fellowship, praising Him. In short, weekends are not only respite from the busy week but a clearing of space and time to reflect on the relationship I have with Him.

The Bible does not speak much of the concept of physical rest, except that when it does speak of rest, it is always in the future. The Bible does speak much about work. Paul uses many active verbs to describe our life here on earth- walk, strive, wrestle, run…

Continue reading →

bible jesus, enering His rest

Rest on the Sabbath, knowing that you will enter His rest soon and forever!

Posted on November 12, 2011May 9, 2016 by elizabethprata

Hello all you wonderful Brothers and Sisters out there. Are the weeks getting longer, or is it just me? LOL, By the time Friday comes, I’m just pooped! If course, I’m thrilled to have been working in a job I love, so no complaints there. Weekends are an opportunity to rest and reflect on the week. I like to think back and go over the times where I may have stumbled and use the weekend for bible reading on the subject I stumbled on. I like to look back and praise the Holy Spirit for when I see where He helped me overcome something. I pray, study and think on Him and His word. Sundays are days for worship and fellowship, praising Him. In short, weekends are not only respite from the busy week but a clearing of space and time to reflect on the relationship I have with Him.

The bible does not speak much of the concept of rest, except that when it does speak of rest, it is always in the future. There are few people resting in the bible, lol. Even in Genesis 49:15 where Jacob said “When he saw that a resting place was good, And that the land was pleasant, He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens, And became a slave at forced labor” it means that they saw that the place was permanent and restful so they worked hard to prepare it for the day in the future when they could rest.

Hebrews 4 discusses rest. In that verse, the LORD is called the Rest. Heaven is the place of rest. (Also Psalms 5:11 and Heb 3:11).

Of course, the most important mention of rest was in Genesis 2:3 where God Himself rested on the 7th day. “Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.”

I like to be busy for the Lord and to use every minute I can to do His will and further His kingdom. But at times we have to stop. Continual work for the sake of work is not good. Though God was not tired, He stopped and rested on the 7th day to show US we need it. In addition, He didn’t just stop and rest, He blessed the day, AND He made it holy.

God made the sabbath a day of rest so rest must be important. He blessed the day, which means we should honor the sabbath and Him who established it in ancient days. He made it holy, putting His holy hands around the day as a hedge to set it apart as a day to honor Him, specifically.

Many other more worthy and academic people have preached on the importance of sabbath rest, so I’ll just say that as busy as I am and I like to be, setting aside a time when I can simply meditate on Him, praise Him, sing to Him, and rejoice in Him is a blessing indeed.

On this earth, we are called to work, to fight, to persevere, to wrestle, to run. There is no rest for us, the weary. At least, NOT YET. Picture the sabbath rests of those few precious hours as a drop of water on the tongue of Lazarus in hell, soothing for but a moment, but when we enter the Rest, and lay down our burdens in heaven, the full flowing water will slake our thirst forever and we may then rest. Imagine how refreshing it will be!

The permanent rest will be as a flowing fountain of peace, thoroughly drenching every cell of ours and relaxing us to a degree none can even imagine. No more fighting! No more persevering! No more wrestling! No more running! Our rest will be Jesus Himself!

Hold on but a bit longer. Enjoy your Sabbath day knowing it is a drop of a foretaste of what is to come. And it will come, and SOON!

Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=http://the-end-time.blogspot.com/2011/11/rest-on-sabbath-knowing-that-you-will.html

http://s7.addthis.com/js/250/addthis_widget.js#pubid=xa-4df8df7d18b59150

end of days. prophecy, end time, enering His rest

Hating sin, loving Jesus

Posted on February 28, 2011 by elizabethprata

I totally get Paul’s lament in Romans 7:15: “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.” Every day I ask the Lord for opportunities to obey. For the most part I do, but sometimes I don’t. I hate that. I love Jesus and I want to make a Kingdom difference, but when He presents something I still balk sometimes. As Paul said, ” don’t understand what I do…”

So Saturday the Spirit said clearly that our church and its people are under attack. I’ve noticed this more lately. The more a Christian steps out, the more the adversary will attack. We are told in these times to expect such attacks. (Ephesians 6:10-18). I was to do my part by prayer walking the church property perimeter before services this Sunday and every Sunday. I thought, hmmm, OK. But when Sunday dawned I started talking myself out of it. I gave all the fleshly excuses, shoes, chest pains, weather, etc, and even convinced myself that wasn’t really what I heard Him say anyway.

Then at church Sunday service He made it evident that there was a lot going on. During the opening hymn singing, a lady spontaneously went forward to the altar to pray. Then more people. When the hymn finished, the Pastor’s wife got up and said that she can’t go two feet in the hallway before someone comes to her beseeching for prayers. There are a lot of serious illnesses, heartaches, and tremendous difficulties facing our families, she said. Everyone is hurting. She said we were obviously under attack.

After the lady had come forward, the Pastor’s wife spoke, she asked the church to pray. About a hundred people came forward and swamped the altar and prayed. I felt terrible I failed to do my part in what the Holy Spirit prompted me to do. I took that opportunity to scoot out the front and do the prayer walk the Spirit has asked me to do.

I don’t have any illusions that I could have prevented any attacks, or that my failure to obey meant things would come crashing down, lol, no delusions of grandeur here. I mean simply that He had asked me to do something, something EASY and ORDINARY: pray and walk, and even at that I still disobeyed! Why do I do that? Why?? I realized that by not obeying I wasn’t hurting myself but as Pastor said, we are all one body. When one part doesn’t work then something else will be impacted or not impacted. That is why I was so upset with myself. My resistance to being used meant that perhaps someone else was not helped.

I am so, so, so sick of sin, in other people of course- isn’t it easier to hate sin in others? lol, but I truly hate it worse in myself. I hate my sin!!! I’m convinced that the bible’s promises of entering His rest (Hebrews 4:1) do not mean rest from labors. We will be doing a lot of work on New Earth and New Jerusalem. I am convinced the verse means rest from our struggles with sin. In our glorified bodies in a sinless world, we will no longer have to guard every thought, control the tongue, fail, confess, obey, and repeat the fleshly cycle. It’s tiring. I can’t wait for rest. I really can’t.

The best part thought is that He is so present in the world, and so active and alive in us. He is so gracious to accept my repentance, and to bless me afterwards with a peace that He knows my heart (and loves me anyway.) I love Him so much. We have the truest God and the Best God possible. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t follow Him.

Tweet http://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js