Find Rest: Place Your Hope In God

This call from our Lord Jesus is for all who are willing. The qualifications being only weary and burdened and needful of soul rest. Tired from the toil and loaded down with all the heavy burdens of this life, we come to Him. Nothing in our hands we bring – emptied of all our self-righteousness and bravado – we are simply broken vessels in need of soul restoration. As we yoke ourselves to Him, He becomes our burden bearer, lifting our heads and exchanging our heavy loads of burdens with His blessings. And we place our heads between His all-sufficient, all-powerful shoulders – resting in the shadow of the Almighty – safe and securely wrapped in the comfort of His love. There is no better place to be.
Our weariness in life comes from enduring troubles giving way to troubles. Oftentimes without even getting a chance to catch our breath, Amen? Like Job, it seems we often take one blast after another, after another, after another. We are loaded down by the pain all around and within - consequences of sin, guilt, broken relationships, our pain and the pain of others. Weary from trying, we remain helpless and hopeless in and of ourselves to do anything about our circumstances much less help for those around us. But God, my two favorite words used together in Scripture, in love for the lost, reached down from on high and took hold of us - drawing us out of deep waters - as King David wrote - and giving us a firm place to stand.
Our weariness comes from seeking to endure our burdens and those of others in our own strength (which is really no strength at all). It is only when we yoke ourselves to the Master – learning from Him and leaning upon Him – that we find true rest for our weary souls and the achieving power to accomplish “pala” things – things “too hard” for us to do. We trade our heavy burdens for His light load. All that is needful is to come to Him. We forget what is behind and we strain toward what is ahead and we press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called us heavenward in Christ Jesus – fixing our eyes on Him, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. All done through His power and for His glory and for our good.