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 NASB
God did not intend for us to live stressed out and running on empty every second of every day. When we live stressed out lives, we are letting Satan steal the abundant life that God intended for us to have. Even if we are filling our days serving God, if we are doing too much, we are not glorifying Him. This is a lie that is easy for Christians to believe. The more I can do - the better! I need to be in five Bible studies, volunteer four days a week, teach Wednesday and Sunday at church, etc. God wants a relationship with us most of all and when we are always running, always distracted and busy, we are not focusing on Him.
The term stress, by and large, involves too much. Too many pressures demanding too much of you physically, psychologically, and spiritually can bring about weariness, anger or illness. Yet we still believe that if we can just get everything under control, we will feel better.
On the other hand, burnout happens when we have ignored the stress we feel and now feel empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don’t see any hope of positive change in their situations.
Neither of these conditions are God’s plan for our lives yet we are a nation of chronically stressed and burned out people. Most of us feel like we are wasting time if we are resting, or that there are other very important things we need to be doing. But God meant for our week to end with a day of rest and worship.
RestStress can cause a lot of negative reactions in our bodies like causing our emotions to become over-reactive, exhaustion, mental exhaustion, depleting our energy, anxiety, panic attacks, and more. Our society today as a whole is overworked, overstimulated, and overextended. The pressure of social media to be more, do more, and have more is constant. God did not intend for us to go non-stop. We were created in His image and He rested on the seventh day of creation as a model to us, calling the day holy. He meant for rest to be a sacred thing and He meant for us to rest. In rest we can connect with Him, we can hear Him and we can find peace in Him.
Rest gives us the energy we need to do God’s work. And for Christians, all our work is God’s work.
Taking care of our families or sick loved ones, performing the mundane chores of life, doing all the things that are not fun or glamorous are all God’s work.
What Needs to Go?
To position ourselves to have the rest God desires for us, we usually have to cut something out, meaning we need to take a serious inventory and redefine priorities in our lives. The day will come when we will be asked how we spent our time. We will give an account of how we used the time that God entrusted us with.
To position ourselves to have the rest God desires for us, we usually have to cut something out, meaning we need to take a serious inventory and redefine priorities in our lives. The day will come when we will be asked how we spent our time. We will give an account of how we used the time that God entrusted us with.
Are you putting God first? Spending time with God every day is essential to helping us stay on track and keeping our focus on Him. We also need to take an honest look and see what may have taken the place of God in our lives. Ia there anything you are doing that is not the best for you, but you love it and don’t want to stop? Whatever it is, it is most likely an idol for you, giving you satisfaction you should only be finding in God. This will drain the life out of you quickly. Elevating God to the first place position in our lives allows other things will fall into place and we can clearly see the things that do not fall under His plan for us. Position yourself to receive the blessing of rest that He gives by making Him the first place in your heart.
