Come to the Lord and Find Rest for Your Soul

We all carry burdens in our human life. Things like financial difficulties, troublesome work environments, painful family situations, and health concerns can make us feel physically worn out and inwardly exhausted. As we struggle to bear these burdens, we may wonder where we can find real, lasting relief and rest.

In Matthew 11:28-29, the Lord Jesus sounded a call:

“Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

In this post, we’ll take a closer look at this precious promise from Jesus with help from notes in the New Testament Recovery Version.

What does it mean to have rest for our souls?

We might think that unless our circumstances change or all our problems disappear, having rest is impossible. But the rest the Lord promises isn’t dependent on our circumstances. And it’s much more than the rest we might experience by simply being less busy. We’ve probably experienced feeling full of turmoil and unrest even when we’re on a vacation. Even though our environment and circumstances are different, inwardly we still may not have true rest.

In His promise to us, the Lord Jesus didn’t say that He would improve our situation, or that He would give us a problem-free life. Instead, He said that if we come to Him, He will give us rest.

In the New Testament Recovery Version, note 2 on rest in Matthew 11:28 says:

“Rest refers not only to being set free from the toil and burden under the law or religion or under any work or responsibility, but also to perfect peace and full satisfaction.”

Now let’s read note 4 on souls in verse 29:

“The rest that we find by taking the Lord’s yoke and learning from Him is for our souls. It is an inward rest; it is not anything merely outward in nature.”

Because the rest the Lord gives us is inward in nature, we can experience it even in the midst of a difficult environment. In any situation, when we come to the Lord, He gives us inward rest for our very souls. This is how we experience perfect peace and full satisfaction.

In fact, this rest is not an objective thing the Lord Jesus gives us that’s separate from Himself. He Himself is our real rest. He came to live in us to be everything to us for our experience and enjoyment.

How can we come to the Lord Jesus today?

When the Lord Jesus was physically living on earth, to come to Him meant you had to be in the same place He was at the same time. If He went to Galilee, the only way to come to Him was to also travel to Galilee.

But for us today, this isn’t the case. The Lord Jesus passed through death and resurrection, and 2 Corinthians 3:17 tells us that now in resurrection, “the Lord is the Spirit.”

As the Spirit, He entered into our human spirit, our deepest part, when we first believed in Him. This is why 2 Timothy 4:22 says, “The Lord be with your spirit.”

These two verses show us that now the Lord as the Spirit dwells in our human spirit.

Since He’s in our spirit, for us to come to the Lord is to come to our spirit. And we can do this at any time, in any place, under any circumstances. When we come to Him in our spirit, we find rest for our souls.

Four practical ways to come to the Lord and find rest in our daily life

So how do we come to the Lord in our spirit? Here are four ways we can practice coming to Him:

1. Call on His name—this is the simplest way to come to the Lord. At any moment, we can cry out, “Oh, Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus, I need You! Oh, Lord Jesus!” Even whispering His name brings us to Him, releases us from our burdens, and fills us with Christ as our real rest.

2. Speak to Him in prayer—when we pray to the Lord, we don’t have to compose long, formal prayers. Instead, we can simply talk to Him. We can pour out our hearts to Him and tell Him all about our situation. In this way, we can practice what 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to do: “Casting all your anxiety on Him because it matters to Him concerning you.”

3. Pray over His Word—as we read the Bible, we can pray with the Word of God. For example, we can pray with the verses in Matthew 11 like this: “Oh Lord, I come to You right now. Lord Jesus, I’m toiling and burdened by so many things. Lord, be my rest right now.”

4. Sing to the Lord—this is such an enjoyable way to come to Him! We can often find rest for our souls as we sing hymns to the Lord. For instance, here are some verses from a hymn by Witness Lee:

I come to Thee, dear Lord,
My heart doth thirst for Thee;
Of Thee I’d eat, of Thee I’d drink,
Enjoy Thee thoroughly.

In such a fellowship
Thou, Lord, art grace to me;
My heart and spirit gladdened, filled,
I enter rest in Thee.

To hear the tune and read all the lyrics, click here.

Whenever we feel full of turmoil and weighed down by burdens, we simply need to come to the Lord in order to find rest for our souls. Then, even in the midst of busy, difficult days, we’ll experience Him as perfect peace and full satisfaction.

If you live in the US, you can order a free copy of the New Testament Recovery Version here.