Finding Rest

Matthew 11:28-19

^“28 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
²⁹ 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.”  (NASB)

Jesus says we are to come to Him when we are over-burdened, heavy laden, tried physically, spiritually tired, and just plain loaded down. You get the picture, right? But why do we still try to carry the burdens we’re not meant to carry? Do we think by doing so we’re more ‘spiritual’? Hopefully not because we aren’t.

Jesus says for us to COME, and in that coming, He WILL GIVE us REST – His rest. We don’t have to strive to earn our spiritual rest. We don’t have to work at doing anything to lessen our load. Jesus said He’d do it. The only key is to COME to Him. Let Him take our load, our burdens. He’s well able to carry them; IN FACT, He took them on Himself on the Cross. Every sin, every burden, every sickness and disease—everything—He took so we would be BURDEN FREE.

Our problem most of the time is that we hang onto the problems, the burdens, the stresses. We can even fool ourselves into thinking we’ve given them to the Lord but we’re still burdened with them because we continually dwell on them, stew over them, meditate on the problems.

Jesus said when we COME to Him, His REST is guaranteed. It is a REST for your soul; and the Greek word for soul refers to your body, mind, and emotions; in other words, ALL of you. When your mind is at rest, your body will be at rest. When your body and mind are at rest, your soul and emotions will be at rest.

An interesting explanation of rest I saw in the Greek refers to an ‘intermission’. When the burdens get too heavy, take a break, an intermission by turning them over to the Lord and then get on with your life.

Don’t let the burdens of today or tomorrow do you in. Cast them—throw them away to Jesus—and then relax in His mercy and love and grace. There is where you’ll find His rest.