"You have made us for Yourself and our hearts are restless until they find peace in you." --St. Augustine
You know that feeling when you're really REALLY sleep-deprived? Heavy eye-lids, pounding head-ache, 'fuzzy' thoughts. All you can think about is collapsing into your warm, comfy bed and sleeping for about two years!
The human body craves rest, needs rest. The degree to which the body feels its need for rest differs, depending on how far removed from its last resting period it is--but it always needs rest. Rest offers a temporary fix for the body's need, but it is not lasting. Before long, the body needs more rest.
The body's need for rest really pictures for us the soul's need for rest. The human soul longs to be satisfied. It searches everywhere for rest--family, medication, entertainment, pleasure, sports, career, etc. Just like the body, the soul experiences temporary periods of rest. It isn't long however, before the nagging need for satisfying rest returns and the search for something new to fulfill us is undertaken.
This world promises us so much. At the end of the day why are we left longing for more?
Sinclair Ferguson says, "There are aches this world cannot heal because it was never meant to heal them." ("The Greatest Rest You Will Ever Enjoy")
So what, or who, is made to heal our aches and longings and anxieties and guilt?
Jesus said, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matt. 11:28)
But what makes Jesus' claim to be able to provide rest different from all of the 'false advertisers' out there?
The world puts a band-aid onto an open wound; Jesus operates on the sore and cleans out the infection. Jesus deals with the real problem of our souls' restlessness: He takes away the burden of our sins.
We spend our lives rushing to and fro to 'doctors' (media, books, education, etc.) being misdiagnosed and prescribed 'medications' (entertainment, substances, money, etc.) that do not make our symptoms disappear, but worsen. Our disease is never healed. Jesus is saying, "I'm the Master Physician. I have the cure to your disease--come to Me for healing!" And the cure is free!
Why then do so few take Jesus up on His wonderful invitation?
You have to admit that you're sick. Not just sick, but terminally ill.
Ferguson explains, "[Jesus'] invitation is to those who are conscious that they bear burdens and therefore seek help and grace and salvation for their needs. It's an invitation that someone who feels no need is never going to hear, never going to respond to." ("The Greatest Need You Will Ever Have")
When grace opens our eyes to our sick condition, there Jesus is with open arms. "I will give you rest," He says.
Jesus gives me rest. Fully-satisfying, wonder-inducing, worship-prompting rest. My rest in Jesus lies in this: I fully rely on Christ to be my righteousness before God.
The burdensome attempts at being 'religious' enough are over. The guilt over my sins is gone. My anxieties about where I will spend eternity have disappeared.
My confidence in God lies not in what I do, but in what Christ did on the cross. That is the rest that Jesus gives to all who come to Him!
by Robin Lawrence
i have been meditating on this scripture much lately as well as the one from Hebrews where we are told to strive to enter His rest...your post was excellent...Jean L.
ReplyDeleteThank you Robin, for this reminder that if we are in need of rest, we need not look any further than to the one who said, "Come unto Me".
ReplyDeleteI thank you also for this key statement, "When grace opens our eyes to our sick condition, there Jesus is with open arms. "I will give you rest," He says."
Apart from this, I would never have come unto Him. My "soul's need for rest", never would have been satisfied.
But praise be to God, "Jesus gives me rest. Fully-satisfying, wonder-inducing, worship-prompting rest. My rest in Jesus lies in this: I fully rely on Christ to be my righteousness before God."
Thank you Robin... well done.
ReplyDelete