“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.” – Matthew 11:29
Are you weary deep in your soul? Has the daily grind of life or the wild sprint through the holidays left you gasping for breath or looking for meaning and purpose in your life? Would you like to find true, deep, genuine, and lasting rest for your soul? There’s only one way – to yoke yourself to Jesus.
This sounds crazy – after all, the image Jesus presents is of a farm animal connected to another to do work side-by-side. How can work bring rest? It turns out that’s how we actually find rest in this crazy, frenetic world in which we live! But not just any work…
Our souls don’t find rest by doing nothing, that just leaves them feeling more weary and insignificant. They don’t find rest by throwing ourselves into whatever our current enthusiasm is, that just leaves them more exhausted eventually. We find rest when we truly commit to serving with Jesus, to walk alongside Him that we find rest. Our souls find rest because when we labor with Jesus: serving in the ministry of His Kingdom, investing in the spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible study, worshiping Him, sharing Him with others, then He carries the load.
Yes, we’re called to work with Jesus. We’re called to be in ministry and on mission. We’re called to serve in the local church. We’re invited and called to do the most important work in the world – the work of seeking and saving the lost, of making disciples, of introducing the faith and teaching believers to yoke themselves to Jesus as well. But when we do these things, Jesus does the hard work and His Spirit gives our weary souls rest.
We find rest as we live and work within the will and pleasure of God. We find rest as we fan the Holy Spirit into flame in our lives and walk in the Spirit each day. We find rest as we discover work that has real and eternal meaning, purpose, and value. The question we must now ask is are we serious about wanting to experience true rest???