Do You Need to Rest?

Are you tired? Are you irritable? Are you easily frustrated? If you were a toddler, your mother or father would make you take a nap. They would read to you and lie down with you. They would put you in a stroller and go for a walk or strap you in the car seat and go for a drive. When children get tired, they get frustrated, and they are not any fun to be around.

Guess what? I react the same way to fatigue. Unless you are a robot, or have some extra serotonin in your brain, you do as well. God designed us to rest. The best thing you can do to overcome your tiredness and irritability is to sit down, relax for a while, take a good nap, and get away from the stressors.

Jesus understood the need to rest, to get away, to slow down, and he made sure the apostles learned that lesson too. “He said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a remote place and rest for a while.’ For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.” (Mark 6:31).

You and I are not more important than Jesus or his disciples. I am not trying to minimize your life or my life. Everyone is important. We all have jobs to do, services to perform, love to give, and more than enough work to do; however, we are not more important than Jesus. Jesus took time to rest. He made us to need rest also. He wants us to rest.

Life makes us weary. People get on our nerves. There is not enough time in the day to get everything done. The good news is that life will continue, even if we rest.

These words of Jesus are some of the sweetest recorded in Scripture. May they give you peace today, and allow you to take a few moments to rest:

"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." Matthew 11:28-29