Be Careful

DEVOTION HEBREWS BE CAREFUL Heb 4:1-2 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 gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith. NIV We also know there are many people who have heard the message about Jesus Christ in our world today, who have refused to combine that message with faith in Jesus for their salvation. Just as in the days when Moses lead those people to the Jordon River, they had heard the message but did not have faith that God would do what He said He would do, so they all died in the wilderness, not entering into His rest, we have people today doing the same thing. People who have not combined the message with faith are still wandering around in the wilderness and they shall die there, not able to enter into His rest, His promised land, the land of milk and Honey, the paradise of God. But we who have heard that message and have combined it with faith are definitely going to enter His rest. This message has value to us, because we know it to be true and of great value. This message gives eternal life. What has any greater value than that? We could gather an overabundance of material goods, creature comforts, store them up, save them for later, but all are useless in attaining eternal life. The question is of course, have we become distracted by all that stuff and lost sight of what is of extreme importance? If we are getting catch up in the things of the world, is that a form of falling short of entering into His rest? Is the internal turmoil of worry and stress over the accumulation of enough wealth to afford the things we want falling short of His rest? If we have heard the message and we have said we have faith in that message and He has said He would care for us, He would provide for our needs, He would make sure we lived in the Promised Land, that He would give us the victory, why do we stress over life so much? We either believe God or we don’t. We either live as a believer or as a non-believer. There is no middle road, there is no believing the message and living in as if it has no value. We either have faith or we don’t. Is it just faith to gain eternal life, and that we have to work our fingers to the bone, relying completely on self in this life? Or is our faith all about for both, eternal life and this life? Read the message, the whole message, the whole story, all the truth and nothing but the truth and we can see it is about both. So we need to be careful.