In a society that is so busy and characterized with restlessness, it is timely that we hear again the Lord’s invitation to receive His gift of rest. Amen!
In November 16, 2010, Kevin Spak of Newser wrote an article, “And the World’s Most Stressed People are…” He said that almost everybody is stressed-out even though no one wins in this “Stress Olympics”. Quoting the “Daily Beast”, Spak shares diverse stress studies. He said that based on unemployment, crime rate, and other economic indicators, Detroit is the most stressed-out city. The most stressful jobs are firefighters, followed by corporate executives. He suggests that if you want a low-stress career, why not try taking a course on musical instrument repair. Generation X (those born from 1965 to early 1980s) is the most stressed-out generation characterized by emotion of anger and irritability.
In this post, I would like to share with you how to overcome a stressful life by finding rest in Jesus our Lord. By nature, we are prone to make our lives too complicated, crowd ourselves with too many schedules, and load ourselves with many responsibilities that we end up losing our joy and the ability to celebrate life. But the Gospel clearly demonstrated to us that the work of Christ on the Cross is complete. All people that come to God through Jesus are pleasing before Him by virtue of Christ’s redeeming work. Amen!
How is your life? How is your career? How about your studies and your relationships? Are they becoming sources of stress and anxiety to you? Are you happy and satisfied with how your life turns out?
Praise the Lord! God does not want you to carry a heavy burden just to earn His favor. You already have God’s favor the very time you put your faith in Jesus. God does not want His children to look weary like the people of this world. God wants you to have life that is full, blessed, peaceful, and free from all the anxieties of this world. The Son of God, Jesus our Lord, is inviting each and every one of us to come to Him and receive His gift of rest. Amen!
How to find spiritual rest in the midst of a stressful world? What are the qualities of our rest in Jesus?
First, our rest in Jesus results from childlike sureness. Jesus simply said, “Come to me.” It is a simple act of faith. It is a call of rest from a person who is full of himself to become a person full of Jesus. A person full of himself will never come to Jesus and will never experience gospel rest. Self-centered men and women are restless, anxious, and angry. A person must be converted from being self-centered to Jesus-centered kind of life for him or her to experience real and genuine rest.
People become weary when they refuse to come to Jesus, and instead, make their own “Jesuses”. We are inclined to make “gods” out of things, out of our careers, studies, ambitions, and relationships. In short, we are inclined to make “gods” out of ourselves. As a result of replacing Jesus with all these things, we get tired and restless. But Jesus is inviting us to come to Him. But we refuse His call not until our lives fell into ruin. Then in His grace and due to the working of the Holy Spirit, we finally listen and realize that the paths that we have taken for so long are mistaken and that His call is the right and the only way for us to experience genuine rest for our souls. Amen!
Childlike sureness simply means coming to Jesus in faith. Jesus said in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” It shows that if you claim to have responded to the call of Jesus to come to Him and yet, you are still weary, burdened, starving, and thirsting, it only shows that you have not really come, but still clinging into your self-made “gods”.
Jesus further said, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” (John 6:37). It is clear that the hand of God is behind the lives of those people coming to Jesus. Amen! If there is any indication that you keep on drawing near to Jesus, it is but a proof that God is at work in your life. Amen!
Second, our rest in Jesus entails committed service. Jesus said, “Take my yoke.” He said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. This implies that there is a difficult yoke to carry. In the Bible, yoke is symbolically used in relation to domination, slavery, and control. It is associated with heavy load and burden.
Man-made yokes are too heavy, difficult to bear, and make the people weary and burdened. Man-made regulations, social expectations, and economic pressures are loads too heavy for many to carry. That is why most people today need to find rest in Jesus.
What is a yoke by the way? Jesus is a carpenter and he is familiar with yokes for he probably made many of them. In the Bible, a literal yoke is a bar of wood that is placed upon animals (especially oxen) for them to carry heavy loads and to farm the field. The idea in using a yoke is to make a heavy load easier to carry. Yoke appears to have a negative meaning and seems to be contrary to the idea of rest. But here a yoke is used to provide rest. Only the yoke of Jesus can supply refreshment and restoration for a weary soul. Taking Jesus’ yoke here simply means becoming his disciple. It requires a committed life that flows from him and to him. It is a life that derives its source from Jesus and is patterned after Jesus. It is a life of committed service.
Finally, our rest in Jesus requires continuous study. Jesus said, “Learn from me.” Learning is commonly connected to hard work. But the kind of learning Jesus is telling us here is different from the kind of learning that produces tired and weary souls. In August 23, 2007, there was a report from NBC about sources of stress among young people ages 13 – 24 years old. For 18-24 year olds, job and finances are the identified sources of stress. Among 13 – 17 year olds, it was academic performance. The school is by far the most commonly mentioned source of stress. Teens work hard to excel in school to fulfill their dreams and the hopes of their families. Stress comes from schoolwork and for having to do so much with so little time.
But here Jesus is offering a different type of learning. It is an invitation to a life of continuous study. This shows that we must retain a teachable attitude throughout our lives as disciples of Jesus. We should never assume that we know it all. We must keep on growing in our knowledge of God through constant study of the Bible. Moreover, we should also learn many things in life from Jesus. We can always learn something from Jesus from all our experiences in life including difficulties and trials. In the midst of trials, we should always think that God wants us to grow after His likeness. Guard your mind and heart therefore when you are encountering difficulties. Never allow resentment and bitterness to stay in your heart. Ask for forgiveness from the Lord and he will cleanse you from all the impurities in your hearts. As you adopt such mindset, you will keep on growing after the likeness of Jesus. Amen!
Our rest in Jesus results from childlike sureness, entails committed service, and requires continuous study. You can find such rest in the midst of a stressful and anxious world by simply coming to Jesus in faith, taking up his yoke, and learning from Him. No other source in this world can provide such kind of rest. Amen!
Only By Grace 