Rest for your soul

I can barely stay awake.

I'm not sure why, but as I was studying tonight I just kept falling asleep. After repeated attempts to focus, I finally yielded to what my body is apparently telling me, and decided to call it an early night.

Rest is hard! I think of what is undone ... the studies tonight, or another time housework, phone calls, a meaningful project. Yet I've been around enough to know that if I don't take rest, my body will force it on me!

Rest is such a biblical principle. God "rested" on the Sabbath, and gave the Sabbath principle to man for our sake, not His. Rest is carried through into the New Testament as a reminder that in Christ, we rest in faith from a works-oriented religion (Heb. 4). But one of the most poignant words on rest is from the mouth of Jesus Himself:

Come to me, all who labor 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.

Matt. 11:28-30

He promises rest - it's part of following Him! Rest of legalism, to be sure ... but also rest from the endless cycle of feeling that success is up to us ... that this ministry is up to me ... that this person or that church will suffer mightily if I take a night, a week, a year off. Not as an excuse for laziness, but as a serious effort at following Christ in obedience when He calls us aside for rest.

Despite my willingness to press on and my sincere efforts to stay awake, my fatigue tonight tells me He is calling me aside for rest. Is He asking the same of you - maybe for a season? Learn from Him in the ministry of rest.

Sometimes it's the most spiritual thing we can do.