Leading One Another to Christ's Rest

By Wayne Barber

In the classroom of adversity, the lesson God wants to teach us is to trust Him and His Word beyond what we can see or understand.

There is an old song that was written by John Stallings that always blessed me entitled “Learning to Lean”. That title perfectly describes what living this life on earth as God’s children involves—it is an experience of learning to lean on Christ. The chorus goes like this:

“I’m learning to lean, learning to lean, learning to lean on Jesus;

Finding more power than I’d ever dreamed; I’m learning to lean on Jesus.”

The generation of Israel that was miraculously delivered out of captivity in Egypt ironically never learned to lean on God and His Word. They could trust God to take them out of Egypt, but they would not trust Him to take them into Canaan. Canaan was not a picture of Heaven because you don’t fight battles in Heaven. Canaan was where God wanted His people to live and enjoy. As their place of rest, it was to them what the fullness of Christ is to us—where God wants us to live and enjoy.

But, just like with them, unbelief—refusal to trust Him—locks the door to all we have in Christ.