Are you weary? Exhausted? Burnt out?
I realize we may all be at different parts of this season in life. You may be preparing for labor, or maybe you just had a baby. Maybe your baby is a few months old, and you are battling exhaustion from sleepless nights. Maybe you are weary and you don’t know why. Wherever you are at, there is true rest for you and for me.
If I am being honest with you, I am a doer. I love to-do lists, accomplishments, tasks, expectations. These are not bad things in and of themselves, but in my sin, I tend to want to justify myself. When I am motivated to do out of a desire to earn my own righteousness, I am always left exhausted.
I can be a slave to my to-do list and expectations. When I get a lot done during the day, I feel good about myself. When I failed to do what I had hoped, I feel guilty. Do you relate? Do you battle the same roller coaster? Pride and Guilt. Guilt and Pride.
Yet we have to ask ourselves: is this the gospel? Should how I feel about myself be built around what I did or didn’t do today? Whose righteousness am I resting on?
The world tells us that success is found in working hard and doing good. We are told to try harder, make better lists, organize our time, get on track. A lot of times we even hear sermons on Sunday and walk away with a to-do list of things we need to work harder at and do better with. These are not bad, but they are not the answer for rest. Because sister, we will always fail. We will always fall short.
When our days revolve around trying to live by a set of exceptions in order to please God, we will come to the end of every day feeling either guilt or pride. When we rest on our own righteousness, we have exchanged the truth for a lie. We have believed that we are enough, that we can do it, that we can be good enough.
When you create a set of expectations to please God and you fail to do them – which you will – you feel guilt. You feel despair. You feel shame. You become weary, exhausted, burnt out.
When you create a set of expectations to please God and you meet them, you feel proud. You feel good. You become satisfied in what you did, and you look down on others for not meeting your expectations. You judge others for their failures. You rest on your righteousness for that day, but ultimately fall back into the cycle of guilt and despair when you fail next.
Friends, this is not the gospel.
The world tells us to try harder, to pick ourselves up from our bootstraps and do. The world tells us that this is where joy is found.
The cross tells us that it has already been done.
Joy is found not in what we do, but in what Christ did.
When we are weary, exhausted, burnt out, He invites us to come. He promises us rest. He calls us to lay down those failed expectations, our pride, and our judgement, and He invites us to rest.
Our salvation and our glory rests not on what we do or don’t do, sister. Our salvation and our glory rests on what we couldn’t do but Christ did on the cross, for us. When you come to the end of your strength and stamina, whether it is in labor or mothering on little sleep, you can rest on Christ’s righteous. You can trust Him. You can pour out your heart before Him.
While we were enemies of God, He came for us. Jesus didn’t come to make our lives better. He didn’t come to help us to be happy. Jesus came to bring us to life. He came so that we would find rest in what He did, and not what we do.
We were asked a question at church recently and I want to ask you the same question. What do you want from God? Do you want what He can do for you, or do you want Him? Take a honest look at your heart and ask yourself, Do you want what He does or who He is?
He is a refuge for us, sweet friend. This week, instead of focusing on adding a memory verse to your to-do list, I want you to rest in the words. Let them roll around in your heart this week.
Pray. Ask God to help you to answer the question above honestly. What do you really want from Him? Is it really Him that you want? Ask God to reveal to you this week whose righteousness you are resting on. If you are resting on your own righteousness, I promise you will become weary and exhausted, and that is not the Gospel.
Because of Jesus, we can rest on His righteousness. Rest, sweet sister, because it has already been done for you. Pour out your heart; He can take it. He is a refuge for us.
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
You can download & print this printable to reminder you this week where you salvation and glory rests. If you are on an iPhone, you can also save the first image as a lock screen.