Tag Archives: rest

Rest for the Weary

The fountain wasn’t running that day. It didn’t even have water in it. Still people kept coming to the fountain. Some came alone; some came with a friend; some came as a family. They studied something written on the side of the fountain, as if soaking the words into their very bones.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28.

I watched them for a bit from my brother’s 3rd floor hospital room. I wondered how many of them were reading this as their first Bible verse and how many were reading precious words that were already imprinted on their hearts and minds. The people coming to the fountain were weary in body and spirit and, maybe, burdened in their soul, needing salvation — as we all do — not just from the soul-weariness of walking through the valley of Shadow, but salvation from their own soul-sickness of sin.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Jesus’ invitation recorded in Matthew is said in the context of him telling us his ability to reveal the Father and the way to Him, meaning salvation from God’s judgement and forgiveness of sin.

He called his hearers to himself. He is calling the people at the fountain to himself. He is calling me to himself. He calls us to a relationship abiding in his love and forgiveness, where we can find rest for our souls. He doesn’t call us in the hope that we will do enough, but in hope of himself, who is God, who lived perfectly, died in our place, and rose to life again, securing forgiveness for all who repent and believe — works we could never do.

Yes, my soul, find rest in God, my hope comes from him. Psalm 62:5

If Jesus can give us eternal rest for our souls, then he can give us the rest we need for day-to-day…

Are you weary of life? Christ will give you a new life and teach you to rejoice in Him always! Are you disappointed? Has the world given you a slap in the face where you looked for a kiss? Come to my Lord! He will give new hopes that shall never be disappointed, for he that believes in Him shall never be ashamed, world without end! Are you vexed with everybody and most all with yourself? Jesus can teach you to love and put you at your ease again. Does someone fret and tease you from day to day? Come to my Master and the vexations of the world shall gall you no longer. You shall reckon these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to you! — Charles H. Spurgeon, Rest for the Laboring, Oct. 22, 1876

Christ takes our burdens of sin, unbelief, vexation, unforgiveness, and disappointed hopes to give us His burden of faith, forgiveness, love, and lasting hope. Whatever temptations or difficulties come, His burden is light.

The LORD replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Exodus 33:!4

Rest for our hearts, our minds, our cares and worries, our doubts and fears, for our spirits and bodies, so that the same self-admonition awakens our hearts at hope of His provision in the morning and reflection of His provision in the evening:

Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you. Psalm 116:7

A Good Day

So I rest in this: “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). No longer is a good day one in which I wake up well-rested. A good day is one in which I can look back at the end of it and see God’s provision in my lack, his sufficient grace in my moments of weakness, his forgiveness to cover my failures, and more of his joy, laughter, kindness, patience, and love coming out of my mouth than I would have dared to dream when I dragged myself out of bed that morning. Tired, but happy, in Jesus is a good place to be. – Desiring God, The Sovereign Hand of God in Sleeplessness

Resting Place

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Matthew 11:28-29

My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed. I trust the ever living One. His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died, and that he died for me.

By God’s grace, arranged and played by Katie

Saturday Song: In Your Arms

This song came on the radio as I was working on a weekend project.  With the busy-ness of this semester, it was a good reminder to rest in the peace of God and his great love.

Click Here for music

“In Your Arms”

Meredith Andrews with Jason Anderson

I’m turning the world off
Embracing the silence
Walking away from all the voices
That are screaming in my ear

I’ve been too caught up
I’ve been so stressed out
And all of the noise replaced the whisper
That used to be so clear

So I close every door
And put my face back on the floor

And I’m in Your arms
Where I belong
There’s no other place for me
Than right where You are

Some things just don’t change
When I call Your name
You never hesitate to wrap me in endless grace
When I’m in Your arms

I’m letting my fears go
Giving You control
For You are the one who holds me closer
In my soul’s darkest night

Everything I see
Is so temporary
So help me to run the race before me
With eternity in sight

Now I close every door
And put my face back on the floor

And I’m in Your arms
Where I belong
There’s no other place for me
Than right where You are

Some things just don’t change
When I call Your name
You never hesitate to wrap me in endless grace
When I’m in Your arms

To sit at Your feet
At Your table of mercy
To gaze on Your beauty, my Lord

To drink from Your well
And be changed by Your glory
How could I ask for more?
Jesus, how could I ask for more?

Than to be in Your arms
Where I belong
There’s no other place for me
Than right where You are

Some things just don’t change
When I call Your name
You never hesitate to wrap me in endless grace

And I’m in Your arms
Where I belong
There’s no other place for me
Than right where You are

Some things just don’t change
When I call Your name
You never hesitate to wrap me in endless grace
When I’m in Your arms

You never hesitate to wrap me in endless grace
When I’m in Your arms

My Resurrection is Assured: Easter 2015

As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust… 1 Cor. 15:48a

I am but dust.  This morning, I had not been awake five minutes when that familiar burning pain began again somewhere in my stomach area. Almost in the middle, but slightly to the left. “Please, stop.  I’m so tired of this,” I muttered to the guilty internal organs as I laid back down to (hopefully) help it stop. The pain eventually subsided, but that didn’t keep me from getting sick with everything I ate.  When I finally made it to the afternoon, I was not enduring well.  Drained and starting to hurt again, I had sworn at least once that I was never eating food again.

I know I’m not alone in this. I don’t have to look far to find friends, family, and strangers that have worse physical pain and debilitating illnesses.  Cancer, Parkinson’s, Dementia, Krohn’s, Colitis, MS, Rheumatoid arthritis.  Some illnesses are visible; some invisible, hiding behind smiles and efforts to live normally.

In the midst of these struggles is the need for assurance and joy.  There are many recommendations for finding them:

That means you let go for just a minute of the idea that disease is bad. For that minute just see your disease as  neutral. It is not destroying you, it is not healing you, it is just a benign blob in the corner of the room. Now, I want you to look at the blob, and ask it very seriously what gifts it has for you. Ask it what gifts it plans to give you. It may be a staring contest, but smile and be patient while you hold your turf and see what it has to say. Why Autoimmune Disease is Joy in Disguise, aiplifestyle.com

Do this, the author continues, and you can begin to make peace with your disease and see the good that can come from it.

This seems like a good exercise, but then, I wonder, what if the “blob” doesn’t answer back?  What if the “blob” itself remains an unknown or becomes an unsolvable known? Where’s the hope in elimination diets and endless questions?

Enter the hope of Easter.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead.  What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.  It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory.  It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power.  It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.  But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual.  The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.  As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.  Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. 1 Cor. 15: 42-49

God, who cannot die, took on human flesh, then came to earth and entered human time as fully God and fully man.  After a life-time of bearing human weakness, he died, bearing my sin and judgment.  But, then, still human, he rose again.  Because he physically rose, I will physically live again. What was weak will be made whole; what perished will become imperishable.  The Creator of my body is not indifferent to it.  He has promised to raise it.  His resurrection assures mine.

Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. The same man, Paul, who wrote this meditation on Christ’s resurrection also wrote about his “thorn” in his flesh, a thorn he pleaded for God to take away. God did not take it away, but showed Paul how to endure:

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”  2 Cor. 12:9

Even with his weakness and in his human frailty, Paul ended his meditation on Christ’s resurrection with this call to hope:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 15:58

So, while I wait the day when my Creator erases all trace of illness, pain, and fatigue from my body, I can rest in his Sovereign will that made Easter possible.  I can find joy in His mercy that brought me to true life in Him.  I can rest in the strength of the love my Savior’s prayers the night before he died.  I can ask the Giver of good and perfect gifts for the grace to see Him working all things for my good.  I can rest in the certainty that He is at work and will continue His work until it is complete.

The grave was not and will not be the end.  Jesus lives, and so shall I.