“That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' “(Hebrews 3:10-11)

Part 1 of 4

Do you long for rest? Are you tired? weary? Does life seem more than you can bear most days? As believers, we have a promise of entering into the Sabbath rest of God but many times we miss this plan for our lives because we do not know it is available. We continue on with our lives and certain things hinder us from entering into the rest God has promised His children. We can look at the example from Israel’s past to understand how to enter into this rest.

“So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did" (Hebrews 3:7-9)

I’ll never forget the moment it dawned on me that God didn’t take the Israelites out into the desert to test them. In fact it was the other way around, they were the ones who tried God’s patience, tested His forbearance all those years and never once did God fail the test. They saw the mighty things He did to bring them out of Egypt. He provided for them and personally led through the desert. Yet that entire generation passed away never entering into the Promise Land. Why? Because of their hardness of heart.