God prescribed rest for his people. He laboured six days and on the seventh day he rested. I don’t believe that God was tired, but he rested as an example for us. If God in his sovereignty took time to rest, why would we work seven days a week? We cannot work hard enough to impress God. I smile when I think of Jesus asleep in a boat during a storm (Mark 4:38). This suggests that not even a storm could come between Jesus and his rest. We cannot allow the cares of this life to cause us to lose sleep.
I know that some of us have hectic schedules and jobs that are extremely demanding. Some seasons are full of storms and one trial after the other. How do we find rest when we have so many challenges? God does not want us to carry the burdens alone. When we lay our burdens at the feet of Jesus, he gives us rest and peace. The job that is onerous and burdensome can become easy when we trust it to God. “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act”(Psalm 37:5).
If we are honest with ourselves, sometimes busyness is a strategy to distract us from problems that we do not want to confront. Other times we enjoy being busy because it gives us a sense of fulfilment and purpose. All of the above scenarios suggest that there are situations that we need to completely surrender to the Lord. A life fully surrendered to God leads to rest. There are other times when we are exhausted because we are fighting battles that belong to God.
We enjoy feelings of self sufficiency and we like feeling like we are in control of our lives. A sense of direction is important and we need decisiveness and a sense of purpose. There are times however, when we cannot control neither the course of some situations nor the outcome. Our only resolve is to trust it to God and rest.
“casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7).
Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about Rest for the Weary.
