“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28).
There’s so much treasure found in spiritual rest. So let’s dig a little deeper. The secret to God’s miraculous rest is found in one simple phrase.
Come to Me.
Jesus Himself is the secret to God’s rest. He is the “treasure” buried beneath the sand of difficulties and doubts, formulas and fears. God’s peace is not the result of solving a problem or removing a nuisance. His rest is divine, other-worldly, totally unique. So we cannot get to it through human wisdom, or by striving to fulfill religious obligations – praying enough, fasting enough, meditating enough, giving enough.
When we find Jesus, we find rest.
Heis the pearl of great price. He is the treasure hidden in the field for which we joyfully sell everything, including useless anxieties, to buy that field.
The reason I call Jesus the “secret” to entering God’s rest is not because He hides from us, but because we sometimes hide from Him. Too frequently the moment a storm rises, right when we need Him the most, our first instinct, strangely, is to turn somewhere else. But why? Why do we sometimes turn first to complaints or worry or cheap substitutes or religious recipes when God has offered Himself to us?
Maybe it’s because we do not yet know Him as we ought to know Him. Maybe we haven’t developed the kind of relationship that He has graciously made available to us. Oswald Chambers said, “Resting in the Lord does not depend on external circumstances at all, but on your relationship to God Himself.” If you are passing through turbulence, this may be the reason. Jesus may have allowed it so you would get to know Him better.
More to come, tomorrow…