Where you place your identity is where you will find your rest.
True rest for a weary soul is in Christ.
But when your identity is in the world, religion, man’s approval, your career, etc, etc. then you will not have true rest for your soul.
Rest isn’t in a day like the Sabbath. It’s in Christ and He says He is the Lord of the Sabbath.
Jesus gives us an invitation to rest. This invitation is extended to every believer, but it is our job to accept it.
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Jesus says to take His yoke upon us.
What is the yoke? It’s something you are bound to.
The yoke was a wooden crosspiece that was fastened over the neck of two animals and attached to the plow so they could labor together.
Jesus invites us to labor with Him. To do life with Him, and to rest in Him.
Rest isn’t the absence of labor, it’s the presence of Christ.
You can rest in your labor when you are laboring in Christ, for Christ, and with Christ.
But when you labor to get the approval of man, to increase your paycheck, or out of anxiety that you won’t be able to provide, then you obviously won’t be able to rest in that labor. That is not the yoke that Jesus invites us to be bound to. That is the yoke of the world.
Jesus says He is the provider and He commands us not to worry about our life - what we will wear, what we will eat, or where our necessities will come from. Jesus says He will provide for all of these things.
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. (Matthew 6:31-34)
Rest isn’t found when labor ceases, rest is found when striving ceases. Striving for acceptance, striving to try and be more or become more to the temporary world around you.
Rest is spiritual. Sleep is physical.
You need sleep for your body, but your spirit needs rest to have peace. And Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
You can be sleeping physically, but still have a spirit of anxiety or worry in your sleep.
Get sleep at night, but rest during the day and after your labor is done make sure you’re at rest before you go to bed.
Labor and then rest. This is the simple formula for life.
12 I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, 13 and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God. (Ecclesiastes 3:12-13)
The question you must ask yourself is what are you yoked to?
When you are yoked to the world’s standards, religions systems, or to lies of the enemy then you will not be able to rest in Christ.
A great way to break yokes is through fasting and reading the word of God.
Is this not the fast that I have chosen:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke? (Isaiah 58:6)
Fast and read the word of truth.
32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (John 8:32)
Jesus is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
His presence is the rest you’re looking for.
One touch of God is all it takes. And one touch of God’s favor is better than a lifetime of labor.
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