Rest From Labor

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours” (Revelation 14:13).

The Bible speaks of death, for a Christian, as a rest from labor. It is as if the Lord of the harvest says to the weary laborer, “You have been faithful in your task, come and sit in the sheltered porch of My palace and rest from your labors—enter now into the joy of your Lord.”

Some of God’s saints accomplish more in a few years than others do in a lifetime. The Bible says, “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). That rest cannot begin until they leave this life and are ushered into the glorious presence of their Lord.

The Apostle Paul said, “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

Victor Hugo said of death: “When I go down to the grave I can say, like so many others: I have finished my work, but I cannot say I have finished my life. My day’s work will begin the next morning. My tomb is not a blind alley. It is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to be open in the dawn.”

Confident of the fact that death is not an end but a beginning, we can say with Paul, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:55).

—From Unto The Hills by Billy Graham

Look around and be distressed.

Look inside and be depressed.

Look at Jesus and be at rest.

—Corrie Ten Boom