All Who Are Weary: A 5-Day Study to Find Rest for Your SoulНамуна

Finding rest for your soul doesn’t mean life will suddenly be easy. We will all face pain and sorrow, but even in the midst of that heartache, our souls can be calm and quiet, as the psalmist says in Psalm 131. True, deep rest means that we can be steadfast and at peace, no matter what happens––because rest doesn’t depend on our circumstances. It depends on our God.

When we are so firmly rooted in the truth of who God is and how He’s created us, we’re able to fight the lies of condemnation the evil one wants to throw at us. We’re able to trust God with our fears and hold onto hope even when we’re tempted to despair. We’re able to be as calm as Jesus who slept in the stern of a boat while the storm raged around him (Mark 4:35-41).

Jesus invites us to experience a kind of rest that cannot be found anywhere else.

The yoke Jesus offers doesn’t require us to uphold impossible standards of the law, like the Pharisees and many teachers of the law demanded in Jesus’ day (see Matt. 23:4). It doesn’t require us to anxiously toil or seek approval or endlessly strive toward some impossible standard. The yoke Jesus offers is one of grace. We’re invited to come to him and accept the grace he offers through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus––and then live lives built on the foundation of that grace.

That means we don’t try to anxiously seek approval, because through Christ, God has already approved of us. We don’t have to fear condemnation, because Christ took that condemnation upon Himself for us. We don’t have to despair, because the worst thing in history has already happened––the death of the Son of God––and not even death itself could thwart the plans or tarnish the goodness of God.

We will mourn and lament this side of eternity. We will grow tired in this life because we are finite people living in a fallen world. But this is what Paul was getting at when he wrote from prison, “In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need” (Phil. 4:12).

There is no easier burden, no lighter yoke, than to be able to walk through life fully assured of the truth of who God is, what He says about you, and what He has called you to do.

Coming to Jesus and carrying the yoke He offers means we get to do things His way with His help. And His yoke will not crush us. It will not leave us lonely or purposeless or fearful, like other kinds of burdens do. Taking up what He offers gives us the truest, deepest rest, because it leads us right into the arms of our Savior.

Thanks be to God.

Want to learn more about how to find deep, lasting rest for your soul? Check out Sarah J. Hauser’s book, All Who Are Weary: Finding True Rest By Letting Go of the Burdens You Were Never Meant to Carry.