The Promised Rest

BY Erin Davis

My idea of heaven has evolved over time. As a young Christ-follower, I envisioned a rather me-centric glory, a Candy Land filled with the sweetest gifts my mind could conjure. I imagined hanging out with my heroes, lounging on comfy cumulonimbus recliners, and basking in my version of total bliss. 

The longer I’ve walked with Jesus and the more I’ve searched His precious Word, the more my imaginations of heaven have shifted. It is not a place dedicated to my endless pleasure. Though God has promised it’s beyond my wildest hopes (1Corinthians 2:9), heaven is not most interested in our indulgences. 

Lay your visions of just harps and angels aside and consider your eternal home with a fresh perspective. The writer of Hebrews lets us peek into the real heaven and see a place of profound rest (Hebrews 4:3,9).

While earthbound, we tend to think of rest as a feeling, a brief moment of closed eyes and relaxed shoulders, but in Christ, rest becomes a reality. And what shall we rest from? Among other things, ourselves. My heart is stirred by this thought: because heaven is a place focused on God, it is also the place where I will finally be free of me. 

Rather than a scene of endless self-indulgence, Scripture promises a future where nothing is cursed by sin and brokenness (Revelation 22:3). That means a final end to our sin and selfishness, pride and pettiness, aches and pains, cancer cells and conflicts. We will finally be free of our navel-gazing because we’ll finally be fully with Jesus, freed from insecurity, greed, and our compulsion to gossip. We will rest from discouragement, defeat, and discontentment. We will rest from all jealousy, all hatred, all bitterness. We will rest from lust and self-loathing, anger, and animosity. We can live differently now, drawing on this future rest, because Christ is already at work undoing all that is broken today. 

When you are weary of your sinfulness and sick and tired of being sick and tired, remember that soon enough you will see Jesus face-to-face and be fully transformed into His likeness—and that this complete work has already begun in part (2Corinthians 3:18). Life with Jesus is infinitely more than a good night’s sleep. It is exponentially better than a beach vacation. It’s a final, forever rest.