Rest Your Soul
Scripture
28 “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Reflection
My favorite way to relax is sitting on my back porch, listening to the hawks, watching the deer, sipping a tall glass of iced tea, and reading a book that helps me spiritually reconnect with God.
We all carry burdens in life. Sometimes life makes you weary. Often days move faster than you can handle. At the end of the day, you feel completely used up and washed out.
Other days are heavy and ponderous as you struggle with challenges that far exceed your resources. Days like that can drain you of all your energy, leaving you empty, weary, and burdened.
Jesus offers those comforting words to each of us – “come to me, all who are weary and burdened, take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for your souls.”
Jesus calls his followers to be yoked with him. The yoke of Jesus is his way of life. Oxen are often yoked in pairs, a young inexperienced ox yoked with an older, mature ox. The younger ox learns how to pull the load by walking beside the older ox. Jesus invites you to be yoked with him, learning from him how to carry the burdens of your life.
Jesus offers a way of life that enables you to find rest for your soul. In him you can find inner rest for the spirit, restoring hope, meaning, and purpose in life. Jesus calls you to live in a way of life in which you maintain a relationship with God that renews and restores your life. Jesus restores wholeness to weary and broken lives.
Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, take my yoke upon you and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus invites you to walk in his way of life. Like a pair of oxen yoked together, Jesus will be your example, walking beside you, showing you how to regularly put aside the burdens that make you weary, to renew wholeness to your life. That wholeness is found as you nurture a relationship with God in quiet and rest.
In the way of life, Jesus showed us, you can find purposeful activity and rest from your burdens. Take his yoke upon your life, learn to walk in his way, and find rest for your soul.
Greg Smith, Director of Legacy Ministry, First Baptist Church of Decatur