Finding Rest

And He said, “My presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest.”

(Exodus 33:14)

On a good day, ministry is exhausting. On a medium day, it wears one down. On a bad day, it is crushing. My experience is that any given week can produce some of each kind of day. There are moments of great reward, fun times, glimpses of the victories of God. There are the moments of uncertainty, of ambiguity, of doubt. Then there are the moments where you face the darkness, with sin staring you in the face, anger, rebellion, and the loss and hurt that results from it. After all these moments, you feel tired, and it’s not the physical weariness of heavy physical labor, it is inward tiredness that then radiates outward from deep within until your limbs feel heavy.

Where is God’s rest then? We tend to think of rest as when the labor is over and we can be done, but I find myself dealing with situations, and walking with others through darkness where there is no immediate end to the trouble. No fix or respite is available, no reprieve from the reality of sin and its effects on us. Where then is rest?

I have been learning a new reality of what that rest looks like. It doesn’t look like a warm fuzzy, a comfortable bed, or a deep sigh of release as the problems and stresses melt away. It is rest born of companionship and understanding. I don’t feel better, I can’t make it better, it’s not going to get better for now, but….. I know that I am not alone now and I know that this is not the end. This doesn’t make the weariness go, but it lets me experience rest in the weariness.

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

(2 Corinthians 4:16-18)

Abba Father said there’d be days like this; there’d be days like this, Abba said. My weariness with this world is not a lack of His rest, but instead a call to make sure that I find my rest in Him and not in the false placeboes of this world. God doesn’t numb my pain or my weariness, He joins me in it, He holds me during it, and He reminds me that this is when I most know His power as I live at the end of my strength and resources.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

(Matthew 11:28-30)

His service is hard, life in Christ is the life of suffering, and can even lead us to physical death. His yoke is easy and He brings rest for my soul. It isn’t designed to make me feel good walking through this world, but it brings me rest in the midst of the great weariness the sinfulness this world brings.

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