Let me start with verses 8 and 9 from Deuteronomy 12.

“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you.”

There’s that sin again, worship of self, being your own god. They were doing whatever was right in their own eyes, the sin of the ages.

Why were they living that way? Because they hadn’t yet come to the rest and to the inheritance.

We’ve talked before about the believer’s rest. I love that it’s called “the” rest. And it speaks as if it’s a specific place to get to, a place you arrive at and then settle in.

If you are still playing at God, you haven’t come to the rest. At rest, we can be still and know He is God.

That’s the goal. Let Him be God. You don’t have to figure it all out, because He has it figured out. Just go along as He carries you and leads you through. When we’re at rest, we can live loved.

To live loved is an action. It’s something you do. It means loving others with the same selflessness of Christ and trusting completely, living without doubt, worry, or fear because we’re loved perfectly. And while it’s an action, to rest is also a verb. You choose to rest. You choose to live loved by giving up the throne and abandoning yourself to trust.

Verse nine also said that they had not yet come into their inheritance. The Holy Spirit, living in those who have received God’s love in their hearts, is a deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance (Eph. 1:4). We just have a deposit. The full inheritance is yet to come.

What does that mean? The rest is ours, but until we come into our inheritance fully, the choice remains ours. We have to make the choice over and over to rest.

What does it mean to choose rest? It just means to know He is God and that we aren’t. And when we can do that, we can “rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.” (Deut. 12:18)

Because it’s His work, not yours.