Rest for Your Soul

It’s audio devo day!

Weary? Jesus has refreshing provision for your soul. Come unto Him and learn the secrets of true rest, as you listen here:

(Does this minister to you? Know someone else that needs to hear it today? You can either share today’s blog link with them, or look up my Feeding on Jesus podcast for sharing and subscribing. You’ll find it at these links on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and most other podcast platforms, with episodes identical to these audio devos!)

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Do you hear Jesus calling? He continues to beckon us, “Come to Me, all you who are weary…” I bet you can relate really well to that word, “weary.” More so than ever before in our lifetimes, there has been much to feel weary about over the last twelve months or so. When we endure prolonged battles and hardships, growing weary is only natural. How we need the replenishing soul rest that Jesus is offering us!

Last week we began to unpack this crucial passage on the matter. Listen to it from that deep place inside you, one more time:

“At that time Jesus prayed this prayer: ‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way! My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’ Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light’” (Matt. 11:25-30, NLT).

We talked in our previous episode about how Daddy loves to share His revelations exclusively with the childlike. As we grow up into a lifestyle of simple trust and absolute dependency on Him, our heart roots go down deeper into restfulness. As He reveals His humble, gentle nature to our heart of hearts, we find rest for our souls.

So today we are going to pick up where we left off, soaking in our key Scripture passage a verse at a time:

Verse 27: “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Here we discover more on the subject of knowing His heart. Jesus is describing for us His intimacy with our Father God. He knows His Abba like no other, and His Abba knows Him like no other. They belong to each other in an indescribably exquisite way. Their intimacy circle is rapturous.

And yet, Jesus expresses willingness to expand this circle, when He then mentions a special group of people: “those to whom the Son chooses to reveal [the Father].” So here we learn that it’s possible to gain access into God’s intimacies! How do we get into this circle of closeness? It’s when Jesus reveals Daddy to us. Notice, there’s that word again – “reveal.” Remember? It’s only the childlike that get in on God’s revelations. So we can conclude that changing and becoming like a child is THE way to get to know our Father’s heart. He is delighted to bring His humble, trusting, dependent ones into His Daddy-Son intimacy circle!

That brings us to the next verse. “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest’” (v. 28).  This is the crux of the matter. This is the bottom line. When we allow Him to transform our self-reliance into simple, humble trust and complete dependency on Him… that’s when we get in on the deepest kind of intimacy with God. And that, my dear friend, is where we really learn to receive His rest. “Come to Me…”. This is Jesus’ invitation to receive personal revelation of His heart of hearts.

So we sink down luxuriously together into Verse 29: “Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” What is happening here? Jesus is self-disclosing. He is sharing with you who He is. He is showing Himself to you. He is letting you in closer, sharing His deep heart with you. He says, “Let me reveal to you My very essence. As I do so, you will find your soul finally finding a permanent home in My rest.” Remember how just two verses ago Jesus was talking about revealing the Father to us? This is how He does it. By revealing Himself to us. He and the Father are One. When you catch a glimpse of Jesus’ heart, you are learning who the Father is.

The Passion Translation’s rendering of this verse provides us with further insight: “Simply join your life with mine. Learn my ways and you’ll discover that I’m gentle, humble, easy to please. You will find refreshment and rest in me.”

Simply join your life with His life. This is another way of saying, “Take My yoke upon you.” A yoke joins two animals into one unit. So Jesus is inviting us into oneness with Him. As we respond to His invitation, we enter into God’s intimacy circle. This is where we find the refreshment and rest that we so desperately need during these days we are living through.

Here we come to the last verse of our passage for today: “For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light” (v. 30, NLT). Revelation of Jesus is rest for our souls. Knowing Him is life eternal. Learning who our Daddy really is… this is where our yoke becomes easy and our burden becomes light.

He is still calling, beckoning to us. Do you hear Him? “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened… Are you willing to change and become like a little child? Are you willing to relinquish control and live completely dependent on Me? Are you willing to trust My unchanging heart of steadfast love for you? If you are willing… I am willing. I want to bring you into Our intimacy circle. I want to show you the Father. Choose the choosing. Come. Come in close. Learn of Me. Rest in Me. Here is My Daddy and your Daddy. We are gentle and humble in heart. Know Us. Know Us well. And in knowing Us, find rest. Find rest for your soul.”

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For you personally, has getting to know the Father heart of God brought your soul deeper into His rest?