Rest

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – (Matthew 11:28-30)

Ah, rest! Rest is a wonderful thing. The older I get the more I cherish a Sunday afternoon nap, or perhaps an early evening where I can climb into bed and fall asleep reading a good book. Rest is one of those wonderful necessities of life. We do not function well without enough of it. God commanded that His people take one day out of seven in order to rest and refresh their tired bodies:

“Six days thou shalt labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.” – (Deuteronomy 5:13-14)

I think America was a much better place when we used to all take the day off on Sundays so that we could go to church, eat an afternoon meal with the family, and rest.

However, physical rest is not what Jesus was talking about when he promised to give rest in Matthew 11:22. The rest spoken of there is not Sabbath rest, nor was Jesus speaking here of the eternal rest that awaits the child of God in Heaven. The rest referred to in this verse is the rest that we receive when we stop trying to work our way into Heaven, and simply receive the free gift of eternal life that Christ wants to us to have. But it goes beyond just salvation itself. Christ continues to give us rest as we yield our lives, our wills to Him and His will. We do not have to figure it all out for ourselves. We can simply let Him guide and direct our lives. It is certainly a lot easier to know that God has an awesome plan for our lives, and we simply need to follow Him, instead of trying to work out the way for ourselves.

“There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” – (Hebrews 4:9-11)

One more thought. Be careful that as a Christian you don’t get so absorbed in the work of God, that you don’t take the necessary time that you need to rest. There are a lot of Christian workaholics out there who feel the church will die unless they are personally giving every minute of their time serving. We need to remember to get enough physical rest, as well as spiritual refreshment, which comes through time spent with God in meditation, study, and prayer. Don’t get too busy with the work of God that you forget to spend time with the God of the work. Don’t forget about your family, either. Your spouse and children need some of your free time as well.

“And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” – (Luke 10:41-42 )