Meditating on Hebrews day 6: Heb 4:1-10

4:1 Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it. 2 For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed. 3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world. 4 For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the seventh day God rested from all his works.’ 5 And again in the passage above he says, “They shall never enter my rest.” 6 Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, 7 God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” 8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. 9 There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 10 for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his.

Think

· Why can you be certain that there is a future rest we can enter?

· If this promised rest is still in the future, what should yoy expect life to be like now?

· Finish the sentence: “because God has promised a future rest for me, today I will live…” (hint, see v2 and v6).

Pray

· Give thanks that there is a time when you can rest from you toil and labour and be with God.

· Pray that God would strengthen you to keep trusting his promise of a future rest.

Today

· Spend a few minutes imagining God’s future world. For help, you could read Gen 2:1-25, Deut 28:1-12, Rev 21:1-6, or Rev 21:22-22:5 and write down each blessing of God's rest. Give thanks for each blessing that you will experience in God’s future world. Pray that God would help you to keep trusting him.

Meditating on Hebrews day 5: Heb 3:7-19

Read

3:7 So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, 8 do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, 9 where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. 10 That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ 11 So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ ” 12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14 We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end. 15 As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” 16 Who were they who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17 And with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies perished in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did God swear that they would never enter his rest if not to those who disobeyed? 19 So we see that they were not able to enter, because of their unbelief.

Think

· What will stop you entering God’s rest?

· In the Bible the “heart” is not so much the place where I feel but the place where I make decisions. With this in mind, how is the heart hardened?

· What’s the antidote to a “sinful, unbelieving heart” that will stop you being “hardened by sin’s deceitfulness”?

Pray

· Thank God that he speaks “today” and promises a future rest for his people.

· Pray that each “today” when you hear God’s voice in the scriptures, you might not harden your heart but “hold your original conviction firm”.

· Write down one area of your life that you don’t want God to speak into. Why is that off limits for God? Pray for his help to resist “sin’s deceitfulness”

Today

· Write down one person “today” that you can encourage to keep trusting and listening to Jesus. Send them a message.

Meditating on Hebrews Day 4: Heb 3:1-6

Read

3:1Therefore, holy brothers and sisters, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, whom we acknowledge as our apostle and high priest. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house. 3 Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 For every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house,” bearing witness to what would be spoken by God in the future. 6 But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are his house, if indeed we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope in which we glory.

Think

· What does v1 tell you about what the author wants for you while reading his letter?

· List all the titles given to Jesus in this passage. How does each title contribute to his “greater honor”? (For apostle and high priest, consider Jesus being sent to make his people holy and deliver them from death and sin, 2:11-12, 14-18).

· How is Jesus’s faithfulness both the model and the motivation to “hold firmly to our confidence”?

Pray

· Thank God that Jesus is faithful over God’s house.

· Pray that God would help you hold firm to your confidence in Christ.

Today

· List down the things that cause you to lose confidence in the Christian hope. Write a prayer from this passage that you can pray each day this week that asks for a more confident grip on the Christian hope.

· Think of one person you could encourage to ‘fix their thoughts on Jesus’. Send them a message doing just that.