Recently I caught a bit of the movie ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ on TV which we saw at the movies a few years ago. It’s based on a true story and stars Will Smith and his real-life son playing a father and son who go through some very troubled times in which Smith’s character is often in tears, as he loses his money, his wife and his home during the economic downturn of the early 1980s, while struggling to take care of his young son. 

His aim is to find happiness (misspelt ‘happyness’ on the wall outside his son’s day care centre). At the end of the movie his happiness is restored as he gets a job with a stockbroking firm. The closing sequence shows father and son happy again as we read on screen that he subsequently started and then sold his stake in his own firm for a multi-million dollar sum. Apparently, there were no more tears in his story.

We might not experience the same depths of despair that this man did. Yet there will be tears for each of us at various times in our lives – whether it be through financial difficulties, relationship problems, illness or the loss of people we love. Amongst the joy of life there are tears that we don’t want to shed. For most people, the answer to the tears is the pursuit of happiness. If it’s not through money, we look for happiness in relationships, or in possessions, or whatever else helps mask the pain of our tears. However, nothing we try can actually take away the pain that eventually spoils everyone’s enjoyment of this life.

But there is something better than the pursuit of happiness – it’s to know the joy of life that Jesus brings. While believing in Jesus won’t mask the pain of life in this fallen world, it delivers something better. It delivers what our souls are telling us we really want but are looking in the wrong places for.

Jesus brings the joy of knowing a life free from all the tears and pain of life as we know it. And though we won’t fully experience that tear-free life now, we can rest in the deep-seated joy of knowing that tear-free life is what we’re heading for as we persevere in trusting ourselves to Jesus. The pursuit of happiness in anything in this life will ultimately disappoint us. The pursuit of true joy in a restored relationship with God through Jesus Christ never will.  

Paul

“There’s no rest for the wicked” so the saying goes. It’s an expression that so many people use to describe their busy lives, without understanding where it comes from or what it means. 

It actually comes from the Bible, in Isaiah 48:22. In our modern NIV translation it reads as ‘”there is no peace,” says the LORD ‘for the wicked”’. In context it’s a word of judgment against the enemies of God and his people. Those who continue to oppose God will ultimately have a rest-less existence. 

It’s not about being busy. It’s about missing out on the rest-full life that God created all people to enjoy.

The theme of rest begins in Genesis 2 when God rests from creating the world and blesses this day of rest for people to enjoy with him. The writer to the Hebrews in chapters 3 and 4 says that this rest God created remains open for all who believe, but closed to those who are hard-hearted towards him. 

In the light of the cross, that means that the rest God created us for is only available through believing in Jesus. If we refuse to believe in Jesus, trusting our lives to him, we miss out on the eternal rest that God has made us to enjoy with him. 
There is no eternal rest for those who refuse to believe in Jesus. That’s what the saying means.

We all need rest. Many of us lead busy lives. And so we seek to make the most of our rest time. However we fool ourselves when we think that we’ll ever be able to achieve rest like the eternal rest only Jesus brings in this life. If we’re looking for the perfect, peaceful, restful life now – in the leisure activities we pursue, in holidays, in retirement, etc. – we will always be disappointed. 

The rest we’re rightly longing for can only be found in a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus that leads to the life of eternal rest – rest from not only the busyness of this life, but from the thing that prevents us from true rest in this life – our sin. The first people lost the enjoyment of God’s rest when they sinned. Life has been wearying for all people ever since because we, like them, are sinners. 

But Jesus brings true rest for the wicked – for weary sinners like us.

In Christ’s love,

Paul

Here you will find letters from our pastors, articles of interest and posts written by our pastors to encourage, train and equip you for good works in the Lord. 

Stay tuned for the first instalment.