“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” – Jesus (Matt. 11:28)
Christian, why are you exhausted? Why soul are you so cast down? Does Jesus not call himself the truth? He DOES! Then how, if his above promise is true, did you end up so exhausted?
Key words: “Come to me”.
Rest is with Jesus, so the true question is where have you been?
Have you ever stayed the night at a friend’s house or at a hotel and woken up confused? At first you lie in bed with your eyes closed thinking you are in your own room and then you open your eyes to see you are in a new and unfamiliar place.
Today I had one of these experiences at work. No, I was not sleeping on the job.
Actually, I was putting ice into a bucket when this happened.
I work at a fast food restaurant. The restaurant I work at is a great place with great people, but the job itself can sometimes take a toll on me. I have a hard time doing customer service jobs joyfully, because I like people. That might sound strange, but I have found in fast food that you have to work extra hard to remind the customer that you are indeed a person. Working fast food requires mastery of the 30 second conversation. I have no problem digging in deep with people and getting to know them, but to be genuine and upbeat while having the same thirty second conversation with hundreds of people a day is not my strong suit. Its certainly a humbling job, as I see my own prideful desire to be known war against my ability to love people for 30 seconds.
All that to say, today I worked a double. And during my shift I went to get ice.
As I filled up the buckets of ice I prayed for God to give me rest an energy and this is when I had my great awakening.
I thought about my purpose there at at work and why I even sought rest and energy. Up until this point of exhaustion I hadn’t even been thinking about God. And what would it profit me I were to go home early and rest all day. Is life simply about surviving and is my work day simply a dutiful drag for no greater purpose than to acquire gas money.
This is not my purpose at all. I was created to glorify God. That’s my purpose!
And yet there I was exhausted in my attempts to merely survive. Here I thought that I was walking in Christ’s footsteps to find I had wandered into a bush (and not a burning one). While I thought I was walking in the way of Christ, I was marching to the beat of my own drummer.
As I thought about my sovereign, powerful, loving, and faithful God who created me for to glorify Him, I found rest in Him. I found rest in the fact that He will accomplish what he created me to accomplish. That He will be glorified, and His glory, His renown, His name exalted, is my greatest joy when my eyes are open. Because of Christ His glory in me is mercy and not wrath, and I am invited in to the mercy of exalting His name through the spreading of the gospel through both my words and my actions, and I can trust that He will accomplish His plan with my life no matter what.
This truth, became rest, and that rest became passion, and the passion became energy, and with in 20 seconds my whole attitude about the work day changed .
I get exhausted when I forget that God has a plan for me each day, and I minimize my day’s purpose to breathing, eating, drinking, fun, and sleeping (and doing all of these with the least amount of conflict possible). How easily we stray from Him without even realizing it!
One last thought: If my WHOLE heart truly desired God glorified in all the Earth, and Ryan Bussiere glorified, I would share the gospel much much more.
I am seeking to allign my heart with His purpose and it is becoming much more easy as I see the superiority of His purpose, but I’ve still got a long way to go.
If you would pray for me and yourself that we would desire His glory and not our own.
May His name be hallowed!
- In Christ Alone
