Rest

Worn out? Tired of trying? Empty? Overloaded? Weary?

“Come to Me, all who are tired and weighed-down and I will give you rest” — Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ extends a wonderful offer and promise to all of us who are weary from life. Maybe your life seems like just one doctor appointment after another. Maybe it seem like you live in your SUV, driving kids from one practice to another. Maybe it seems like your significant other has checked-out on life and is just sleeping and consuming all your food (and all your energy). No matter what is making you tired and discouraged, Jesus offers to give rest to people just like you and me.

Does Jesus promise that we’ll always sleep well at night, always have plenty of energy, and never feel discouraged? No, He doesn’t. Sometimes following Him means lack of sleep, hardship, and outright discouragement. One time He sent out His closest followers to travel the countryside, telling others about God. When they came back, Jesus took them away to get some rest. When they arrived at their getaway location, they discovered that many people had heard where they were going and were waiting for them. Instead of getting rest, they spent their time “away” helping others. It wasn’t restful at all.

If He’s not promising enough sleep, what sort of rest is He promising? He’s promising many other kinds of rest. Many people work hard at trying to please God. They spend their entire lives with the nagging doubt that they won’t be good enough when they die — that they won’t please God when they meet Him face to face. Some work hard trying to do good things to earn God’s favor. Others try to silence the doubt by buying lots of things, spending lots of time on social media, going on lots of trips and adventures, or experimenting with various drugs. Jesus Christ offers true rest from trying to please God. He offers a rest that lets us lie down at night knowing our future in the after-life is safe in God’s hands.

Find out how to receive His rest.

Another kind of rest He promises is rest from worry and fear about what might happen tomorrow. We all have many uncertainties in life. Some people wonder how they will afford college for their kids. Others wonder where their next paycheck will come from. Others are waiting for the results of a serious medical test to come back. The world is constantly changing. Politicians we don’t like are elected in office and make strong and rapid efforts to take the country in a bad direction. We see how people’s lives are destroyed by storms, earthquakes, tornados, and other disasters. Our spouse who promised to never leave us tells us they are leaving. We could go on and on. The possibilities are many and the realities are stark.

Jesus never promises that hard and bad things won’t happen to those who come to Him for rest. But, He does promise a special kind of inner rest to His followers. He promises to take every hard thing, every painful thing, every discouraging thing, and every sorrowful thing, to take them and use them for our good. He gives us a true rest that comes in knowing that He is watching out for us and won’t allow anything to happen to us that won’t be better for us in the long run. This is a great promise. It can give us much peace and rest. But, only He makes this great promise to those who actually come to Him and follow Him.

Jesus is ready and willing to accept all who come to Him.

We can also rest in knowing that God cares for us even in the little day-to-day things that give us pleasure or drive us to irritation. God the Father watches closely over the earth and over our lives. He tells us that not even a common sparrow can die without His knowing. Think of all the many, many of birds flying and chirping right now around the globe. God sees every single bird right now and is caring for them. God is not only big enough to watch and care for each of the birds, He is also big enough to care for all the other living animals and creatures. Even better, He tells us that we are much more important than our feathery friends. If He cares for them, think about how much more He cares for us!

He’s watching over each one of us right now. He knows things we don’t know ourselves. He knows how many hairs are growing on our heads. He knows what we’re going to say even before the words form on our lips. There are billions and billions of people living on the face of the earth right now. He knows what each person is thinking and what they’re going to say even before they say it. Not only does He just know things about us, He is powerful enough protect us. He offers this protection and care to anyone who comes to Him. This is true rest — knowing that He is watching out and caring for us.

Do you want to learn how to come to Him? Learn How