Read: Matthew 11:27-30

I’m sure we’ve all heard these verses before. We’ve read them and felt comforted by the promise that Jesus will give us rest. This life can be a lot – there are many burdens that we carry around – and yet Jesus promises to trade our heavy burdens for His light one. Our hard yoke for His easy.

But beneath the comforting surface, these verses had always confused me a little bit. I trusted that they were true, and yet…following Christ didn’t always feel easy. Many times my burden still felt heavy. My yoke still hard.

But in God’s grace, as I was reading these verses again recently – they struck me

differently. I’ve realized that like many of us, I so often feel like I have to be good enough. We know that there is no way to earn salvation, and yet there is a part of us as humans that have a hard time accepting God’s grace. There may be a part of us that feels it too good to be true – that we have to live up to it somehow.

Yet right here – Jesus speaks to us. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…rest for your souls.” Trying to be good enough is a heavy burden to bear. Because try as we might, we cannot be perfect. Not even close. But here, Jesus is telling us to rest in our salvation. To rest in His love. To rest in the finished work of the cross – for “It is finished” was His cry.

It reminds me of this quote – “‘It is finished.’ May those words land on your bones for the nights when fear tells you the cross was a beginning and you must finish grace.” Rejoice…and rest, for you do not have to finish grace.

Yes, our salvation is still being worked out. We are still growing, still maturing. But we don’t do it by our own strength – for the Holy Spirit works in us, producing the fruit of our salvation. For we do not work in order to earn our salvation; we work from the freedom and grace provided by our salvation. We work with a light burden and easy yoke.

And as our salvation is being worked out, we rest in the promise of it’s fulfillment: “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ”

‭‭(Philippians‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬). Because of Jesus, because He went to the cross, because we have the hope of resurrection – even when life seems heavy, we can still find true rest. Rest for our souls.