Finding Rest

As Christians, we live on the battle front, under constant conflict, and our souls often find themselves pining after rest. “Struggles within, conflicts without,” is the anthem we sometimes find ourselves singing. We battle doubt, fear, and flesh. We lift our shields against fiery darts and don our helmets from seething lies. These attacks are intended to assault, throw down, and crush. With so much contention and clashing, who wouldn’t need rest? Christians are a warring people – victorious, but at times battle weary.

So where do we start? How do we find the quietness and trust our souls thirst for? Jesus extends an invitation to cast our cares and confess our sins; we can start there by responding to him. We can start by holding nothing back and pouring out our hearts to him.

The burdens we carry can take on many forms: guilt, regret, hurt, disappointment. Maybe your backpack is stuffed with some of these – or maybe there are others. We are invited by the Savior, our strong deliverer, to find relief in him from all that feeds our anxious thoughts and invades our minds. With humility and trust, we can cast, and leave, our burdens with him. Yes, this habit of prayer is a daily practice that continues over a lifetime, but we will find that God is faithful, in his due time, to lift us up, grant us rest, and free us from that which alarms us.

He will graciously lather us in his peace and rest.

God’s presence brings refreshing, but our sins, while they no longer separate us from him, can dull our soul’s sense of his presence and even cause us to run from it. Lay these hideous weights aside, my friend, and find the sweet refreshing of confession to a faithful God who readily restores our war-torn souls! What a joy to walk in his light, in honesty, pouring out our hearts to him, no door closed, no room off-limits to him.

So, where does your hope of rest lie now? Man and money are misplaced hopes; both will fail you at some point. Look to people to be your provider or protector and you’ll eat the hollow fruit of disappointment. And riches? Wisdom warns us against setting our hearts on a growing bank account; cash has a tendency to sprout wings and vanish into the distant skyline.

The Lord invites us to shun that which provides short-lived and shallow escape and to turn to him and find deep and enduring rest, real repose, in him and from him. Let your waiting and hoping be in nothing else. “Christ alone, cornerstone”, as the song says.¹ When life’s boat is sailing stormy seas, only one is worthy of our trust, only one brings us a quieted soul. There is only one anchor, one sovereign, one hope, one Jesus. Find your rest in him. He is calling you.