Chapter Two

Dec 5

FINDING REST FOR YOUR SOULS

"Come to me, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; and ye shall find rest to your souls." - Matthew 11:28-29

Rest for the soul—this was Jesus's first promise to weary sinners. It's a comprehensive offer: deliverance from every fear, provision for every need, fulfillment of every desire. This is what the Savior uses to call back those who've wandered away, mourning that the rest they once found has either disappeared or been disturbed.

The key insight? You didn't stay close. You didn't remain with Him.

Notice how Jesus repeats His promise of rest twice, with an important progression:

First invitation: "Come to me, and I will give you rest"—immediate relief the moment you come and believe. This is the rest of pardon and acceptance, the peace of being loved by God.

Second invitation: "Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; ye shall find rest to your souls"—a deeper rest that comes through ongoing relationship and surrender.

God's gifts need time to become fully our own. They must be held, appropriated, and absorbed into who we are. Even Christ's giving cannot make these gifts our own without our active experience and participation. So Jesus offers both the initial rest of salvation and the deeper, personally discovered rest of abiding with Him.

Why Rest Gets Lost

Many believers lose their rest because they never understood what Jesus actually requires. Some common mistakes:

The undivided heart problem: They never learned that Jesus claims complete allegiance over every area of life. There's no corner where He doesn't want to reign, no detail too small for His disciples to seek to please Him. They didn't grasp that entire consecration—giving Jesus everything—is what He asks for.

The "too hard" problem: Others believed the holy Christian life was possible but seemed beyond reach. Taking and bearing Jesus's yoke appeared to require such strain and effort that continuous abiding seemed unrealistic—not a good starting point for feeble beginners.

They missed the key truth: When Jesus said "My yoke is easy," He was telling the truth. The yoke gives rest because when you yield yourself to obey, the Lord Himself provides the strength and joy to do it. When He says "Learn of me" and adds "I am meek and lowly in heart," He's assuring you that His gentleness will meet your every need and carry you like a mother carries her child. When He says "Abide in me," He's simply asking for surrender to Himself, trusting that His almighty love will hold you secure and bless you.

The Two Essentials

Consecration and faith—giving up everything to Jesus and receiving everything from Jesus. They're two sides of the same coin, united in one word: surrender. Full surrender means both obeying and trusting, trusting and obeying.

Why Discipleship Feels Difficult

With this misunderstanding from the start, it's no surprise that many believers don't experience the joy and strength they'd hoped for. They fall into sin without knowing why—because they never learned how wholly Jesus wants to rule them and couldn't keep close to Him. Or they recognize sin but lack power to conquer it because they don't know or believe that Jesus will completely take charge to help them.

Either way, the bright joy of first love fades. Your path, instead of shining brighter toward perfect day, becomes like Israel wandering in the desert—never quite there, always falling short of the promised rest.

Weary soul, come and learn this: There is a place where safety, victory, peace, and rest are always guaranteed—the heart of Jesus.

The Real Issue (And Solution)

But you might say: "It's exactly this abiding in Jesus, bearing His yoke and learning from Him, that's so difficult! The effort to maintain this often disturbs my rest even more than sin or worldly concerns."

Here's the mistake in that thinking: Does it exhaust a traveler to rest at an inn or in bed? Does it tire a child to rest in their mother's arms? It's not the house that sustains the traveler or the arms that sustain the child—it's resting within that shelter.

The same is true with Jesus. Your soul simply needs to yield itself to Him, to be still and trust that His love has taken responsibility and His faithfulness will complete the work, keeping you safe in His care.

The blessing is so immense that our small hearts struggle to comprehend it. We find it hard to believe that Christ, the Almighty One, will truly reach and keep us all day long. Yet this is exactly what He promises. Without this promise, He cannot genuinely give us rest.

When He says "Abide in me" or "Learn of me," He genuinely means it. It's His own work to keep you when you yield yourself to Him. When we abandon ourselves into His love and care, it's not the yoke but resistance to the yoke that creates difficulty. Whole-hearted surrender to Jesus immediately makes Him our Master and Keeper, who secures our rest.

A Simple Command

Come, and let's begin today to accept Jesus's word with complete simplicity. It's a clear command:

"Take my yoke and learn of me." "Abide in me."

These are orders to be obeyed. An obedient student doesn't question possibilities or results—they accept every instruction confident that their teacher has provided everything needed. The power to persist, the blessing of abiding—these belong to the Savior to provide. Our part is to obey; His part is to supply.

Let's respond today with immediate obedience: "Savior, I abide in You. At Your bidding I take Your yoke; I commit to the duty without delay; I abide in You."

Let every awareness of failure give fresh urgency to the command, teaching us to listen more earnestly. May the Spirit help us hear Jesus saying with love and authority that inspire both hope and obedience: "Child, abide in me."

That word, heard as coming from Himself, will end all doubting—a divine promise of what will surely happen. And in ever-increasing simplicity, its meaning becomes clear:

Abiding in Jesus is simply giving yourself up to be ruled and taught and led, and so resting in the arms of Everlasting Love.

The Blessing

This is blessed rest—the result and reward of those who come to Jesus to abide in Him. It's God's own rest, the great calm of the eternal world that surpasses all understanding and keeps the heart and mind steady.

With this grace secured, we have:

Strength for every duty
Courage for every struggle
Blessing in every difficulty
Joy of eternal life even in death itself

O my Savior! If ever I doubt or fear, if the blessing seems too great to expect or too high to reach, let me hear Your voice quickening my faith and obedience: "Abide in me. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; ye shall find rest to your souls."

Marcus Meazzo