Soul Rest
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Sometimes living in this age makes us weary. Okay, not sometimes. Most of the time. The daily grind of schoolwork or up-keeping a career can wear us down slowly over time, and we don't realize it until it's too late. Before you know it, you're having an emotional breakdown in the bathroom. The days grow long and the nights are too short to get adequate rest. Having a social life becomes a joke and being alone can get depressing. Oh, and somewhere between living paycheck to paycheck, being a pseudo-social hermit, working to stay alive, and spending time with your family, you need to somehow eat healthily and exercise. Life can be crazy, and if this is all there is to being human, we out of all creation should be pitied.
Rest. Rest is what we need. I know that I need it, but even on my days off I make myself busy or anxious with things that haven't even happened yet. I can be so heavy-laden with my own expectations and with the expectations of others, both exhausting me and keeping me awake well into the morning. This cycle of tiredness and restlessness is what happens when I don't come to Jesus.
The world around me as a millennial is pushing me to be in constant pursuit of the temporary. Success has been defined for me by the salary I should be having and the fleeting things I should be enjoying. When those things aren't enough, then it's on to the next thing. This cannot be all there is. This is not all there is.
Christ offers us rest. Not only that, Christ is rest. He is rest from our laboring and striving in works for our salvation [Hebrews 4]. He is rest in the midst of the storm [Matthew 8:23-27]. He is rest and eternal fulfillment as opposed to the vain and empty pursuits of this world [Psalm 116:6]. We can experience this rest if we just come to Him.
From my years in youth and young adult ministry, I encounter brothers and sisters who want to follow Christ but "don't know where to start." The answer is always, "Just follow Him." Whether it be because of fear or pride, some shrink back. Why? When God is calling us to follow Him, we start to count the cost. Following Him always begins with repentance--fully relinquishing what enslaves us. Like the rich young ruler who was confronted with the reality of following Christ, are we willing to let God remove what weighs us down--our false identities, our destructive habits, our earthly merits and successes?
Why don't we come to Him? Maybe it's because sometimes I like my heavy burdens. I like the sin that so easily ensnares me. My fleshly appetites, though they're pulling me into destruction and further dissatisfaction, are being heedlessly tended to. Being the victim clears me from being responsible for my own actions and puts me on everyone's radar. Maybe it's because when I come to Jesus, He shows me who I really am apart from Him, and that's way too frightening. Coming to Jesus involves me feeling everything and nothing at all until I am brought to the end of myself. Coming to Jesus means dying.
When it comes to following Jesus these things are true, but there is more to it that we need to understand. There are more wondrous depths to what is actually means to draw near.
"Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
He is gentle and humble in heart. Even if we just begin to seek out the heart of Christ, we will easily find that He is so worth leaving all that I know to come to Him. His kindness leads us to repentance. As He pulls us nearer to Him in gentleness, our souls will increasingly find true rest and eternal contentment. Why don't I just grow limp in my striving and let the Lover of my soul draw me with cords of love? Oh, it's because I complicate things, especially when it comes to the topic of repentance and returning to where I initially strayed. Like preparing for an awkward class reunion, sometimes I feel the need to rehearse what I'm going to say to the Lord. In all truth, He just wants me. Not a cleaned-up version of me or a well-rehearsed apology. Just an honest cry, sigh, or groan will do.
"Jesus, hold me close. I'm so tired. I need your rest."
The One who is gentle and lowly of heart has promised to be found if you seek Him [Jeremiah 29:13]. He has promised to give you rest. He may not ask you to quit your job or stop going to school, but you will be rested even through that. How? When you follow Him, you know that work and school isn't all there is. You can do it all for His glory and know that your soul is at rest in the finished work of Christ. Yes, coming to Jesus means dying, but it also means a glorious resurrection awaits.
This isn't saying that your life will have no burdens whatsoevaaaar! Actually, Jesus says "take My yoke upon you and learn from Me... for My yoke is easy and My burden is light." We are now taking on the yoke of Christ. Believe the Word when it says that it's much easier and much lighter than the burden of our sin. It's easier because now we have a hope. It's lighter because Christ already bore it all. The yoke of sin weighs us down into Hell. The yoke of Christ carries us into glory. We are not exempt from suffering in this life, but we are inheritors of Eternity.
So I'm going to carry this yoke of Christ and all its implications with thankfulness and joy. I will make suffering my friend because it is making me more like Him. Every trial and tragedy is light compared to the weight of glory. Even in this race, looking onto Jesus, we can be at rest.
So listen up, soul. You better rest.