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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, NIV).
Do you struggle to rest?
Throughout my life, I’ve been a busy bee, often made uncomfortable by silence, rest, or inactivity. When my mom would take a nap, I shuddered. When my friends would sit and play on their phones, I thought, “You’re wasting so much time!” Even when my husband attempts to relax, I find myself wondering why he’s not using his time “more efficiently.” The reality is that I may be the one with the bigger problem.
From the beginning of creation, God created rest as a gift to be enjoyed, not an experience to sell. But that’s exactly what our culture has done. We’ve made “rest” seem like bubble baths, spa days, or paying too much attention to ourselves. Instead of finding peace, we end up with a longer list of self-care to-dos.
Most of us are exhausted, but we can’t seem to stop. And maybe that’s because all our lives we’ve understood rest wrong. Rest feels unsafe when our nervous system has learned that stillness equates vulnerability. But Jesus doesn’t just invite us into spiritual rest; He speaks into our embodied exhaustion.
In Matthew 11:28-30, we read a familiar passage on rest that is often overused. But what I want to focus on today is that when Jesus says “come to me,” this is His offer of relational safety before we may experience any behavioral change. Because we’re invited to come to Him as we are, struggles included.
Jesus isn’t demanding effort first, or that we magically learn how to rest overnight. No, he’s offering refuge first because true rest is found in a person, not in performance. A person who tells us we can lay the mask down. Take a breather. Loosen our grip.