DAY EIGHTEEN | Matthew 11:25-29

At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

I Will Give You Rest…

Let me start with a confession. If there is anything that I am aware of that God is working on in my heart during this season, it is my need to be able to fully rest in Him. This is something that I recognize has been both a place of great victory for me, and a place of intense struggle. I believe that the tension is so strong in this area because I know and believe that rest is one of the greatest gifts from God to His people.

That is why the invitation extended by Jesus in this passage is so meaningful. Jesus simply welcomes those who were listening to come and receive rest from Him. The kind of rest that He’s talking about here is not just the taking a nap kind of rest. No, it is the kind of rest that restores our being: body, soul and spirit.

From the beginning of time, God has placed a high priority on the connection of His relationship with man and rest. We know this because God laid out the importance of the Sabbath pretty early in His story. While Genesis tells us that God rested from His work on the seventh day, that first Sabbath would have actually been the very first day that Adam and Eve woke up. They were created one day and celebrated it with an evening walk with God. Then God set aside the next day as a place of Sabbath, meaning that rest was not something they had to work for, but a gift from God that they lived from.

Rest was so integral to God’s plan for those made in His image that He included keeping the Sabbath in the ten commandments. But for whatever reason, it seems that man has always struggled to walk in God’s pattern for rest. According to most scholars, the children of Israel never had enough faith to complete a whole 50 year cycle which would’ve included the seven Sabbath years plus a year of Jubilee.

It is significant that Jesus invites us to come to Him as the source of true rest. I know many times in my life, I have gotten caught up in the busyness of “following Jesus”, and felt like that has led to me running on empty. While there are definitely times that we are stretched in terms of the intensity of a season, or how tired we might feel on a certain day, Jesus is not sending us conflicting invitations. He is not inviting us to rest with one breath, and then leading us into a place of exhaustion in the next.

When Jesus spoke to the weary and the worn down, He was sharing a very specific aspect of the gospel, that reflected His heart for man from the Garden. He said, when you come to me, acknowledging your need for me, and I will be your supply. John 1:16 says that of His fullness we have all received, grace for grace. This is important to remember as we hear the offer from Jesus to bring us to a place of perfect rest.

I would say that learning to have a godly perspective on rest is vital for those who are following after Jesus. I think this is why busyness has been one of Satan‘s most effective strategies for entangling us in the affairs of this world, where we always run on empty. The abundant life was never meant to be lived exhausted.

I’ve said for many years, that rest is not the reward for getting all of your stuff done, but it is a part of God’s best plan for your life. I will admit that for me, that is easier said than done. In fact, last summer, Abigail came to me while we were away on what was supposed to be a vacation and gently, but lovingly reminded me of that simple truth.

Dad, you know that thing that you teach about rest not being the reward? You’re really struggling with that, huh?

I knew the truth, but I had, indeed, been struggling to live in a healthy rhythm of rest.

Why?

I think there is more than one reason, but for me, there are definitely times when I struggle to rest because I struggle to trust God to really take care of me. Rest can feel irresponsible if there is still more that I could do. As much as I don’t believe this is God’s intention, it really does feel like rest is my reward for getting all my stuff done.

The problem with this way of thinking (feeling) is that there will always be more that we can do. This kind of life will lead us to a place of weariness, and when we start our days out from a place of weariness, it is so much easier for our hearts to be drawn into spiritual warfare in an unhealthy way. Weariness is a real thing, and it was to those who walked under that load that Jesus invited to come to Himself to receive perfect rest.

That is why the invitation to come into true rest was a part of the gospel. There is a dimension in God that we really only find in the midst of His rest, as we acknowledge that He is great enough to take care of us, even if I haven’t finished everything on my plate. It is in ceasing from our own labors that we are able to enter into His rest. This is significant because, as cliché as it may sound, I believe that we really do discover the rest of God inside the rest of God.

I pray that as you fix your eyes on Jesus today, that you would hear and accept His invitation to give you rest and teach you a way of living that allows you to come out from under the heavy load of weariness. His intentions for you are good, for the restoration for your soul and for you to walk through life with Him. Remember, His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

JOURNALING QUESTIONS // LINK TO PLAYLIST

Examine – How would you describe what this passage reveals about the life of Jesus?

MindShift – Is there anything about what you read in this passage that challenges the way you think about what it means to follow Jesus?

Prayer Focus – Is there any prayer that you can pray to co-operate with Holy Spirit to see your mind renewed to become more like Jesus?