Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
E xhaustion can never be an excuse for sin. When your fatigue “makes” you jealous that other people get to rest, you look away from God. Don’t look at the lives of the people around you to find an excuse to resent your own life. The life of faith isn’t the easy life. God’s Word never commanded vacation days or rest from doing good, only stuff like perseverance and endurance—kind of the opposite of a sunny getaway on a tropical isle, huh? A lot of people throughout history have worked to the point of exhaustion serving God. In fact, you might say that most of the great things in history were done by people who were worn out.
You’ll find the rest you need not on vacation but in the arms of the Father. Christ left us with this promise: “Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). There is rest for your weary soul. There is a place of refreshing, and it can be yours today. Don’t let the cares of this world overwhelm you. And don’t tell yourself that you have to get away in order to find rest. You can rest right where you are, in the middle of your work, at home, with your family, here and now—no need to get away. You can find the peace that goes beyond anything we can imagine (see Phil. 4:7) right now. Every morning God hands out the peace that day needs, offering it to you like manna from heaven. He doesn’t give you enough to store it up and make it last the whole month or even the week, but he asks you to come to him every day and find just what you need to continue on in strength and in hope.