Entering into His Rest

Mormon spoke to the righteous among his people “Wherefore, I would speak unto you that are of the church, that are the peaceable followers of Christ, and that have obtained a sufficient hope by which ye can enter into the rest of the Lord, from this time henceforth until ye shall rest with him in heaven” (Moroni 7:3). So what will it mean to “rest with him in heaven” and what is the “rest of the Lord” here? I once heard someone suggest that in the next life the righteous will indeed rest, and they spell rest in the next life as W O R K. The general idea behind the statement was that the righteous will not be sitting around in the next life relaxing; we will continue doing the work of the Lord. This is consistent with this statement from Brigham Young: “Father Smith [Joseph Smith Sr.] and Carlos [Smith] and Brother [Edward] Partridge, yes, and every other good Saint, are just as busy in the spirit world as you and I are here. They can see us, but we cannot see them unless our eyes were opened. What are they doing there? They are preaching, preaching all the time, and preparing the way for us to hasten our work in building temples here and elsewhere.” The key point here, I believe, is that there is no contradiction in being “busy” in the work of the Lord and being in the “rest” of the Lord—those are, in fact, very much the same thing.

               Alma referred to the “rest of the Lord” several times to the people of Ammonihah and he taught us that to be in the Lord’s rest means that we are repenting and keeping His commandments. He spoke of those who did “teach his commandments unto the children of men, that they also might enter into his rest”—in other words, to enter into His rest we must be keeping the commandments. Alma mentioned as well those who were “pure and spotless before God” who likewise “entered into the rest of the Lord their God.” Again, those who are repenting and becoming like Him are those who enter His rest. He gave this invitation to all of us: “And now, my brethren, I would that ye should humble yourselves before God, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, that ye may also enter into that rest” (Alma 13:6,12-13). This implies a great deal of spiritual labor on our part to be a part of His rest; we must “bring forth fruit” in the actions in our lives, an analogy that implies a serious kind of work. The time when the Nephites were busily preparing for the Lamanites—surely one where they had little time for physical rest—we read this surprising description: “But behold there never was a happier time among the people of Nephi, since the days of Nephi, than in the days of Moroni” (Alma 50:23). It wasn’t rest from physical work that brought them happiness—it was rest in the Lord knowing that what they were doing was what He wanted and knowing that He was with them. Ultimately to rest in the Lord, in this life or in the next, is not about resting from work but about doing the work we know the Lord wants us to do: repenting and keeping His commandments for us. It is not idleness that will bring us happiness and peace but rather knowing that what we are doing is exactly what He wants us to be doing. As President Joseph F. Smith said, “It means entering into the knowledge and love of God, having faith in his purpose and in his plan, to such an extent that we know we are right, and that we are not hunting for something else; we are not disturbed by every wind of doctrine, or by the cunning and craftiness of men who lie in wait to deceive.” To find rest here or there, we must first learn what the Lord would have us be doing and then do that thing with all our heart. That is the key to finding rest.