Come to Christ for Rest

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

In this passage Christ tells us to come to Him for rest; rest for our souls. All too often we labor and carry burdens that weigh down our hearts. Our souls become restless. We worry about this thing, or that. We fret over the “What ifs.” We feel the weight of burdensome duties that overwhelm us leading to discouragement, or even to despair on the one hand. Anger develops fermenting into bitterness and a critical spirit toward yourself and others.

This burdensome duty is laid upon us out of guilt and fear from man-made and man-centered commandments that is either self-imposed or imposed upon us by others. In either case, our souls become restless. The shackles of the restless soul will restrains us from knowing the rest promised in this passage and will result in neglecting less weightier duties of the believer, such as proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ to others.

The shackles of the restless soul can only be released by coming to Christ by faith and in repentance of our sins, as He tells us in these verses. By the grace of God we must come to Christ laying our burdens aside and cease from our self-righteous labors. Then, He says, we are to take on us His yoke and learn from Him. We are to learn from Him His gentle ways, and His humble heart. His ways, His duties are not forced upon us to do, but rather required of us out of a love for us; done by us from a thankful heart for His salvation of us by His one atoning sacrifice on the cross and our hope of eternal life by His resurrection.

Only when we come to Christ in this way, each and every day, will we find the rest that is in Him alone. This does not come naturally because our lingering sin nature that assaults us every moment so we must look to the Lord for His grace to even come to Him. By do so everyday we will begin to discover His rest and learn that His yoke is, in fact, easy and His burden light no matter what the devil, the world or the flesh throw at us. Won’t you this day come to Christ by faith in repentance of your sins and in humbleness of heart, laying aside the burdensome yoke of the flesh and put on His yoke and burden. His yoke is easy and His burden light for He has carried the eternal weight of our sin and fulfilled the righteous requirements of the Law for us, so that we, by power of the Holy Spirit according to His eternal Word, may serve Him and live to Him in His rest to the glory of God – Soli Deo Gloria!