As Believers, How Can We Find True Rest In a World That Screams "Do more!"?

Peace. Rest. How to we find it?

It isn’t found in listening to more podcasts. It isn’t found in “doing more .” Finding peace and rest is not found in completing your never ending to-do list.

We strive and strive to feel accomplished. We sign up to serve at church, we take that family a meal, we might even read our bible everyday. But emptiness consumes us.

It is because we get so caught up in “doing”, that we forget to just sit at the feet of the One Who calls us to take that family a meal. To serve at church. To abide in Him. While it’s important to do these things, specifically as a believer, if our hearts are in it only to check off a list out of obligation, we are sadly missing the big picture. We feel like we can never achieve true peace because we try and create peace through a lifestyle that God never called us to.

Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. “

This is Jesus talking. He says, “Come to me.” How beautifully simple is that? Yet we complicate it by instead going to Bible study. We go to our Christian podcasts. We go to the books that everyone is recommending.

We are missing the point!

While all of those things are great and can be helpful tools in our walk with God, they cannot be our only sources of deepening our relationship with Him. Jesus said, “I will give you rest” but only after He said “Come to me.” He didn’t say “listen to this sermon that talks about rest, and you’ll receive rest.” He didn’t say, “read this book about rest, and you will find it.” We must go to Him. It is the only way we will find rest for our souls.

How can we expect to completely feel at peace in this life if we aren’t running to the One Who gives peace?

“You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” Isaiah 26:3-4

We go to that weekly bible study. We lead worship on Sundays. We read those devotionals. But there is no growth. I know this is happening because it has happened to me. How do we stop this dangerous cycle? There is freedom from it, friend.

We must go to Him. And I don’t mean only on Sunday mornings when it’s “easy” to pray. We must run to Him as if our life depends on it, because it does. It’s not only our life we should be worried about. If we are not abiding in Him and finding peace and rest for our souls in Him, how can we expect others to do the same? If we are truly concerned with spreading the gospel and reaching the lost, something has to change within our own hearts. Our lives cannot look the same as everyone else, even within the church.

The enemy wants us to get caught up in the “doing”, because when that happens, we are blinded to what God is actually calling us to do. I am tired of waking up everyday and falling into this cycle of complacency. There has got to be more, and I know there is.

Maybe finding out what that “more” is means we have to step away from living a life that is full of distractions and not full of His presence. Maybe we learn to say no to things that fill up our schedule and say yes to spending time alone with the Father. Maybe when we make these small, yet significant changes, we will find true rest.

We are promised rest when we go to Him. We are not promised rest when we wear all of these fancy titles, or when we commit to a million things just to feel like we are doing enough.

I know I have said this multiple times but I will say it again: true rest comes from Him. There is no other way. So I am going to choose to run to Him, to cling to Him, and to give Him my weary heart in exchange for rest. Will you do this with me?