Many people have misconceptions about what it means to find true peace. Reflect on what life is like when peace reigns.

When peace is lacking, what's in its place?

How would you summarize your personal understanding of peace?

While discussing Israel's experience in the wilderness, the book of Hebrews makes it clear that God intended for his children to enter the Promised Land, a land of rest, peace, and plenty. Due to their disobedience and stubbornness, though, one generation was not allowed to enter that promised rest. Drawing on that historical event that all his Jewish readers would have recognized, the author uses it as a powerful analogy for the deeper and broader "salvation rest" that God calls all believers to enter.

Hebrews 4:1-11

1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. 

2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. 

3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

“As I swore in my wrath,

‘They shall not enter my rest,’”

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. 

4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” 

5 And again in this passage he said,

“They shall not enter my rest.”

6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, 

7 again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words 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 of another day later on. 

9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 

10 for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.

11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

What is God's rest?

Why won't some people be helped by the gospel?

How is God's rest broader than only entering the Promised Land, and how can people today enter God's rest?

How can we know that God's rest is still to come in the future?

What part of the Hebrew people's experience should Christians avoid following?

How does God's rest relate to peace?

How can we experience God's rest both now and in the future?

What keeps us from enjoying the rest God offers?

How is your life different since you first discovered peace with God?

In what area of your life are you still not enjoying God's rest?

How would you explain God's rest to a non-Christian?

One of Jesus' specific promises to us has to do with peace. "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27) Though the world talks about "peace," we know that the peace we have in Christ is something else. God's peace is the rest that comes when we know our lives and our future are in the hands of Someone far more capable than us. The world thinks peace is a state we create by our efforts; Christ offers us peace and asks us to let absolutely nothing keep us from entering it. It's his peace that we get to enjoy.

What steps can I take to more fully enjoy God's rest this week?