Matthew 11: 28-29
Come to Me, all you who labour 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.
Most of us are waiting, waiting for something in our worlds to change. As one thing in our lives is finally obtained, another area may be found wanting and again we wait. Students study and wait to graduate; relationships breakdown and we wait for restoration; loved ones get sick and we wait for healing; husbands and wives quarrel, they wait for change; singles feel alone and wait for a partner; couples wait for children; children wait for their parents; and employers and employees wait for increase.
Working whilst waiting for anything can be exhausting. We all need REST and refreshing.
Hebrews 4: 10-11 (KJV)
For He who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
Jesus says that in the waiting whilst we work, our labour to do what is right, we can come to Him and He will GIVE us rest and our souls [our minds and our emotions] will FIND rest. Jesus says that we need towork at resting. This is an oxymoron, a seeming contradiction of terms, but let the Bible explain it further.
Hebrews 10: 1-4
For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
Hebrews 10: 12
But this Man [Jesus Christ] after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God…For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
For every believer, there is rest deep in our conscience provided for by the one sacrifice Jesus made so that we no longer need to have any debt in our hearts when we come to God.1 Jesus was an over-payment for our sin debt.1 If the mortgage on our house has been overpaid and a bank manager approaches asking for more, we can politely show them the door knowing with full assurance the debt has been completely paid for, and some!
Rest in our conscience is provided for as soon as we believe in Jesus as our Saviour. The rest that we need to work at which Jesus talks about is the rest we can have in our daily waiting; rest from the things that can wear out our mind and emotions. He is not saying we should rest from work but we can find rest inour daily work.1
Matthew 11: 29
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.
A yoke in the Bible is a picture of work. God says that work is good for us. He gave Adam work to do in the Garden before the fall of man (Genesis 2:15) and says that it is good for us to provide for ourselves and our families.1 (1Timothy 5:8) So being yoked to Jesus whilst we work, we will find work easier and the burden of it lighter then trying to do things on our own.
Hebrews 4: 11 (KJV)
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.
The Bible says that the only reason we may be anxious trying to do things on our own without Jesus, is that we have forgotten that God can be trusted to provide for and bless us with those things we are waiting for. Our hearts are in a state of unbelief. God can be trusted to bless us because He has put us in Christ. (Galatians 3:13-14)
Leviticus 25: 19-22
And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?” Then I will command My blessing upon you…
Deuteronomy 28:8
The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses (bank accounts) and in all to which you set your hand and He will bless you in the land (rest) which the Lord your God is giving you.
Rest brings God’s commanded blessings.1 When God commands something it will happen.1 By coming to Jesus allowing Him to GIVE us rest afresh each day, our minds and emotions – our souls, are reminded of all He has done for us and promises to give us and again we can breathe easy. The weight of having to carry the burden of all the work on our own becomes lighter when we realise that by being in Christ we are yoked to the One who does not condemn us and commands blessings upon us in every area of life.
3 John 1: 2
Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, even as your soul prospers.
As our minds are reminded of our complete forgiveness of all our sins, past, present and future by seeing Jesus, emotions are calmed, peace returns to our hearts. This rest we find in Christ is how our souls prosper and to the extent that we find and receive this rest, all things – financial, relationships and health – in our lives will prosper.