Sunday - Rest for Your Souls

There’ve been lots of times in my life when I have been overly tired. When it happens to me, there never seems to be any one thing that led up to the exhaustion and weakness. It just seems that a number of things have happened, or have piled up (things needing to happen!) and suddenly I feel overwhelmed because of “spinning my wheels” for days, achieving nothing.

Some people experience this exhaustion from their physical labor, some from jobs in which they labor with their minds. Others experience a similar exhaustion from dealing with difficult people, and still others from dealing with difficult circumstances. Some families have difficult dynamics, some careers offer unbearably demanding schedules, and some individuals have extreme challenges. No one is immune... we’ve all experienced exhaustion. And probably each of us has thought (at least once) that there was nothing we ­did to bring on the levels of exhaustion we've experienced.

The truth, however, is that there probably is something we did not do which perpetuated the tiredness that led to exhaustion. Did we rest? Did we take time off regularly from the” loads” we carry in life? Did we look for solutions, observing how others have dealt with the same things? Have we asked others questions about how they find restfulness during their rapid-fire stress-filled days? Have we sought the Lord’s way in all of this?

The tiredness we experience physically (as mentioned above) typically pales in comparison to the soul-weariness that is faced by those who haven’t learned to go to the Lord and His Word with all of their plans and their needs. Believers and unbelievers alike can face this soul-weariness. It’s a bottom-of-the-pit experience, where you can feel bound both physically and spiritually… thinking that God is so far from you, thinking that you can’t stop anything you are doing because it is “needed”, thinking that no one knows how to help you or cares to walk alongside you, thinking that you are “in it alone”, and that there is no end to the weariness - no way out.

God’s Word tells us differently. God gives us direction for our lives. And it’s there for us… if we’ll only read and contemplate His Word. Will we follow?

"This is what the LORD says:
"Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls."

Jeremiah 6:16

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