read this if you're tired

Matthew 11:28

“I’m tired” is never a statement that surprises God.

Matthew 11:28–29 (NKJV)

²⁸Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

²⁹Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

One thing about rest, that’s very powerful:

Rest existed before men fell.

Genesis 2:2–3 (NKJV)

²And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done.

³Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

Everything that existed before the fall was PERFECT.

Jesus came to restore man to his pre-fall state.

So until we understand the idea of rest, we’ll live a life a part from God’s original plan.

One of the best places in the Bible to understand the concept of rest is in Exodus 16.

Exodus 16:26–27 (NKJV)

²⁶Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”

²⁷Now it happened that some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none.

God told them to gather double on the 6th day, because there would be none on the 7th.

Two things here:

1. The rest is trusting that God has done enough for you.

2. Working when you should be resting will lead to nothing.

Rest begins when your efforts end.

You can only enter into this rest when you realize that God has kept his end of the bargain, and there’s nothing you can do to add to the work of God.

Can you imagine God creating the whole universe in 6 days, and then Adam wants to add to that?

There’s nothing we can add to perfect.

There’s nothing we can add to the finished work of Christ.

All we can do is come to Him and realize, our efforts are only fruitful within the allocated period He’s given us to work.

The days He’s telling us to gather, to harvest, to build, we must work. It will be productive and fruitful.

When we partner with God, we can go far with the grace He makes available.

But then God will always create seasons in our lives where He tests our hearts to reveal something.

Were we trusting in His effort the entire time? Or our own? This is revealed on that day of rest when the manna stops, the creativity stops, the inspiration stops, but we continue anyway.

That’s when disaster strikes. Labor with no fruit.

It’s a waste of time.

I could go on and on, but I think we get the picture.

Here’s some scripture to encourage you:

Zechariah 4:6 (NKJV)

⁶So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 (NKJV)

¹¹I returned and saw under the sun that— The race is not to the swift, Nor the battle to the strong, Nor bread to the wise, Nor riches to men of understanding, Nor favor to men of skill; But time and chance happen to them all.

Psalm 127:1–2 (NKJV)

¹Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman stays awake in vain.

²It is vain for you to rise up early, To sit up late, To eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.