How Can I Rest?

Many people are seeking rest. We look forward to the end of the day, to weekends, and even to holidays. Yet even when our body rests physically, our mind and our heart are often not at rest. And then, on Monday, we have to return to school or to work. How can we find true rest, complete satisfaction, and full enjoyment?

The very first person to find rest was God Himself. For God to rest was a great matter. He rested not because He was tired, but because He had found satisfaction with His work. What brought rest to God? What was it that gave Him such satisfaction? During the six days of creation God created the light, the air, grass, herbs, and trees; He created the sun, the moon, and the stars; and He created the fish, the birds, and all the animals. Although God saw that all these things were “good”, He did not find rest. It was only when God created man in His image and with His authority (Genesis 1:26) that He saw everything He made was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Finally, God was satisfied and rested from all His work (Genesis 2:2-3).

When God created man, He did not issue man with a list of things to do and not to do. Instead, He simply spoke to him about eating (Genesis 1:29). In this way, man also was brought into rest, satisfaction, and enjoyment in Eden (Genesis 2:8). God gained in man a life to express Him and represent Him and man gained God as his provision, protection, and pleasure.

However, God’s enemy Satan tempted man and man fell (Genesis 3). When he fell, man lost God, and also God’s provision, protection, and pleasure. As a result, man began to fear poverty, danger, and boredom with life.­ In order to meet the necessities of life and to survive, man used his own strength and devised means of supply, defence and amusement (Genesis 4:1, 20-22).

This is still our situation today. Satan has formed a world system to replace God and occupy us. Day by day we work and labour in vain. Although we seek rest and satisfaction, what we find in the world is fleeting, fragile and shallow (Ephesians 2:12). Although we are seeking enjoyment and pleasure, actually we are pursuing shadows and are chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 1:2, 17). We cannot rest in what does not satisfy us; it is only when we gain what truly satisfies us that we may find rest.

Jesus Christ is the only One who can give true rest. He said, “Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). Only He can satisfy us. He is both the complete God and the perfect man. He lived a genuine human life on earth and died to take away the sins of the world. He resurrected so that we might receive Him as our life. The rest He gives sets us free from the toil and burden under any law, religion, work or responsibility. The rest He gives is God Himself as perfect peace and full satisfaction.

The Lord Jesus is calling you to come to Him and find true rest. Simply open your heart to Him and pray:

“Lord Jesus, I need You.
I confess I have tried many other things.
Lord Jesus, I come to You.
Thank you for dying for me.
I receive You as my rest, my satisfaction,
my enjoyment, and my everything.”