Day 1

A Warfare of Rest - Day One – Establishing the King

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest…  Hebrews 4:11

If you ask someone to describe the word “rest”  invariably you’ll hear descriptions of babies sleeping peacefully in their mothers arms or feelings of sinking down into a warm bed after a long hard day.  Rest invokes a sense of peace, of calm.

And that’s why phrases like “striving to enter into rest” or “a warfare of rest” can seem like oxymorons (contradictions).  But maybe that’s because we haven’t fully understood what the word “rest” actually means.

The most frequent mention of the word “rest” in the New Testament is the familiar passage in Hebrews 3 and 4. In these chapters, the Greek word for rest is κατάπαυσις (katapausis) which literally means “a putting a stop to, putting down, deposing”.  It comes from the verb καταπαύω (katapauo) which means to put to rest, calm, assuage, to stop, hinder, put in check, to put down, to depose one from power.

Depose?  Merriam Webster’s defines depose as: to remove from a throne or other high position. 

So put another way, then Hebrews 4:11 could actually be read: “Let us therefore make haste, zealously and earnestly to enter into putting a stop to or removing from a throne or other high position. 

Which in fact sounds a lot like “casting down arguments and every high thing that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Could it be that a “warfare of rest”  means allowing the Lord to expose and depose the enemy from all the places in our lives where, through unbelief, he has set up thrones or high positions from which he, rather that God, is ruling?  

I really believe that over the next three weeks God wants to establish His Lordship over our lives and His rule over our hearts in a way we have not yet experienced.  He will never be seen by the world for the King that He is, until He is first exalted as the One True Head over His Body, the Church.

So as we enter Day 1 of this “warfare of rest” let’s  pray this prayer of dedication together: Lord, I desire  for you to be seen in and through my life to be the One True, Majestic and Supreme Ruler of the Universe that I know you to be.  And so Father I submit myself fully to strive to enter into rest.  Expose areas in my life where anything has been put in a high place other than You.  In Jesus name, Amen!

Stephanie
On behalf of the Awaken Team

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