Matthew 11:28-30 ESV
“Come to me, all 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.”
All Who Labor
There are many reasons we can be heavy laden or burdened or
weighted-down from labor (toiling, working with effort of body and mind) to the
point of exhaustion, of being worn-out, and of being depleted physically and
mentally and emotionally of all energy, and to be in need of rest. As a woman
who was once a young mother of four, there were four perfectly good reasons
right there. Life as a young mother can be very tiring.
Another reason may be if you have a physical handicap and so
any amount of physical labor will wear you out. I am there, so I understand
this in a way I never did before. I have to stop and rest in between just about
every strenuous activity or I don’t make it to the next one. And if I don’t
rest then my pain level increases tremendously. And if my pain level increases,
especially since I do not take medication, then that can hinder productivity.
Or you may have a job which is physically strenuous and so
when you finish your day you must rest so that you can make it through the next
day and the next. And these are just some of the reasons why we might be there.
But then there are non-physical reasons such as worrying,
fearing, not trusting in the Lord, and taking matters into your own hands to “help
God out,” etc. Or you may be someone who is trying to earn God’s approval
through human effort and not through surrendering your life to Jesus Christ via
trusting in his strength and wisdom. And this could be because you are still
holding on to sin and so you are trying to be good enough on your own.
And then I think of the Apostle Paul and what he said:
“For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9).
Now this was beyond their control. Paul had people who tried
to put him to death, who stoned him and left him for dead, and he was beaten, and
falsely imprisoned, and was whipped with lashes, beaten with rods, and he suffered
shipwreck, and many other physical attacks against his body. Plus he was
persecuted verbally, and he had people lying about him and trying to destroy
his reputation, and some of this happened while he was in prison.
And then I think, too, of Job, and how Satan killed off his
servants and his animals and his children and then he attacked Job physically
will all sorts of sores all over his body. And while he was in pain and was
suffering the agony of all of that, his friends were accusing him falsely of
sinning against the Lord, and they said that is why he was suffering as he was.
And even though he tried to explain the truth to them they would not listen,
and they continued to attack him. And that would be enough to exhaust anyone.
And then one more thing. We can be weighed down with sin
because we are trying to go it alone without God and we are following our flesh
instead of the Spirit. And that weight is never going to be lifted unless we
give it up and we lay it aside and we don’t take it up again, but then we
follow our Lord in obedience to his commands. And then we can run the race he
has marked out for us to run in this life (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Rest for Your Souls
So, we can be heavy laden (exhausted, worn-out) from many
different things, some of which we do have control over and some of which we
don’t. But the rest that this is talking about is not physical rest, though we
do need that, too, and it is important that we get that when we can, when it is
needed, even if it is just a few minutes here and a few minutes there. Our
bodies need physical rest, but too much rest is not healthy, either.
But this is speaking of rest for our souls. So if we are exhausted
physically because of a strenuous job, or because we are raising young
children, or because we are being persecuted, or because of a physical handicap
or an illness or an injury, or for other reasons, this also affects us mentally
and emotionally. I definitely get more emotional when I am physically tired. I
cry more easily. And then I know that I need not only more physical rest, but I
need to rest in my Lord and in his strength.
For it is in times like these when Satan will attack us in
our minds and in our emotions and we won’t have the defenses we might normally
have when we are more well rested. And so especially in such times as these we
need to go to him to find rest for our souls, for our inner being. And we need
to cry it out to the Lord, if need be, and talk it through with him in his word
and in prayer. And then we need to trust him to work it all out for our good.
And this is what it means to take God’s yoke upon us. It means
we relinquish control over our own lives to God and we let him have his way in
our lives, and we trust in his sovereignty, and we believe that he is
absolutely in control over everything in our lives. And then we let him guide us
in the way that we ought to go, and we rely on his strength, which we absolutely
don’t have, and then we just obey him.
Boy I can tell you of so many times that I sat down to write
and had nothing to offer at all and God just took over. I would sit in front of
the computer with my fingers on the keyboard but I had absolutely nothing to
give other than to just rest in Jesus. And then he just poured it into me. And
when I got done writing I definitely knew that only happened by the grace of
God. Now he guides me in all that I write, I believe, but sometimes it is when
I am just not there physically or mentally that he just creates a miracle.
But now let’s talk about those who are weighed down with
sin. You will never know peace and freedom in your spirit until you surrender
it all to the Lord Jesus and you take his yoke upon you and you let him have
control over your life and then you do as he says. And this has nothing to do
with trying to earn or to deserve your own salvation. This is Jesus working out
your salvation in and through your life as you yield to his control (Php
2:12-13).
So, if you want to know peace, and if you want to find rest,
then you must surrender your all to Jesus Christ and let him lead you where he
wants you to go. And the burden will be light because he will be carrying the
weight of it. Doing God’s will is not heavy labor. Walking in sin is heavy
labor and you will never find rest now or in the life ever after if you
continue in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord. So, give your all to
him, and find rest.
[Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11;
Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-17; Eph 4:17-32; 1 Pet 2:24; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21;
Tit 2:11-14; Jas 1:22-25; Rom 12:1-2; Eph 2:8-10; Heb 12:1-2; Jn 6:44; 2 Pet
1:1; 1 Co 15:58; Col 1:21-23; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb
10:26-27; Rom 2:6-8; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 5:3-6; Col 3:5-17; 1 Jn 1:5-9;
1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Matt 7:21-23; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
By Thomas O
Chisholm
Be with me, Lord – I
cannot live without THEE,
I dare not try to
take one step alone.
I cannot bear the
loads of life, unaided,
I need THY strength
to lean myself upon.
Be with me Lord, and
then if dangers threaten,
If storms of trial
burst above my head,
If lashing seas leap
ev’rywhere about me,
They cannot harm, or
make my heart afraid.
Be with me Lord! No
other gift or blessing
THOU COULDST bestow
could with this one compare –
A constant sense of
THY abiding presence,
Where’er I am, to
feel that THOU ART near.
Be with me, Lord,
when loneliness o’ertakes me,
When I must weep
amid the fires of pain,
And when shall come
the hour of “my departure”
For “worlds
unknown,” O Lord, be with me then.
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