Rest.

Why can’t we delight in Him? Because we don’t desire His Rest.

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the LORD honorable, and honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, then you will take delight in the LORD” (Isaiah 58:13,14).

When have we turned ourselves from doing and seeking our own pleasure? When have we done anything but our own ways? When have we paused from speaking our own word? When have we done all these things, forsaking our cravings and expression in exchange for His Rest? How can we delight in Him when His Rest is not a priority?

“…with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His Rest, but to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:17-19).

Obedience is preceded by trust, and trust by a vision-as-yet-unseen that becomes more desirous to us than all the fancies of the vision-seen. As Jonathan Edwards said of the will, “it is that motive which, as it stands in the view of the mind, is the strongest, that determines the will.” Which, in the view of the mind, is strongest: the surrounding dust or the exalted Rest?

For the sake of His rest, trade your pleasure for His holy day (the “Today” of Hebrews 3:13). Trade your ways for His honor. Trade His Word from speaking your own word.

The fruit of embracing His Rest is a life that delights in Him.