Rest Through Exhaustion

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

Everyone has burdens. The rich, the poor, the smart, and the ignorant. But are burdens, as they come, equal? The Lord's intention in placing burdens upon His Bride is to bring us to a point of complete exhaustion. This is the only way we can truly learn of Christ. It is not enough to gain knowledge from the Bible or the experiences of others; it must be a personal experience, wrought within the heart of each individual. We must all reach a state of utter weariness with sin and self, recognizing that we possess no righteousness, goodness, or holiness of our own.

The purpose of all spiritual labor is to lead us to this realization:

to grow weary of the world,

recognizing it as a vale of tears;

to be disheartened with ourselves,

as we are our own greatest burden;

to become tired of mere professors of faith,

for we often fail to see the grace of God in them,

which alone we value;

to be weary of the ungodly,

whose conversations harm our minds;

to feel the weight of our bodies,

often afflicted with sickness and pain,

hindering our souls;

and to be disillusioned with life,

seeing the emptiness in what others find so pleasurable.

Through this often painful journey, we are brought to a state of utter weariness. It is only at this point that we can find true rest in Christ.

As long as we can find rest in the world, we will seek it there. As long as the things of time and sense can gratify us, we will pursue them. As long as we find any delight in ourselves, we will cling to it. As long as we can derive satisfaction from the visible and tangible, we will be content with them.

Yet, when we become weary of all visible, tangible, and sensible things—when we tire of ourselves and everything here below—then we will seek to rest upon Christ, and Christ alone.