According to my concordance (and if I counted correctly) the Bible mentions the word "rest" over 200 times. This is only including the use of the word in reference to sleeping or physically resting. Considering the plethora of other issues that are addressed in scripture, it is amazing that something like that would be mentioned so many times.
But is it really that surprising? Soon after Creation in the Old Testament, God established an entire day for rest. Why did He do this? So we could enjoy football and the traditional Sunday afternoon nap? I'm not sure about the football, but I think there's something to the idea of the nap. Why? Because God knew that we would need rest. He knew that we would need a day for rejuvenating our bodies, minds, and souls. He Himself took a day to rest after the creation of the universe, so it shouldn't be surprising that we need rest as well.

In fact, I think that we were created to need rest. God could easily have created a planet full of superhumans who never needed to sleep. He could have made us without the need to periodically stop and catch our breath, but He didn't. He wanted us to have a reason to slow down and to enjoy life.. He wanted to create in us that need because He created life to be enjoyed, and though we have to work to survive, God knew that without physically needing to, we would take work to the extreme and never slow down. (He knows us so well!) He wanted us to need to rest. He wanted us to have that need because He knew that we would most easily find Him in those times of rest, and that's what He wanted more than anything.

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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

There are some verses in the Bible that just stand out to me, and this is one of them. The idea of Jesus speaking to the burdened and weary members of society is close to my heart because, well, that includes me. Who isn't included in his invitation? Who has never felt stressed, overwhelmed, worried, sad, angry, scared, or anxious? If there is such a person, I suppose they might not be as touched by this personal invitation as I am. Many of us, though, are probably impacted by the words that Jesus spoke here.

Is Jesus inviting us to a life free of anything that might cause those negative emotions, then? Is He saying that if we come to Him, as He says, we will never feel those things again? Clearly, the answer is no. The implication here is that when we live for Jesus, the world will not change.....but we will. As the apostle Paul so eloquently puts it in Philippians, Jesus is calling us to rest and to peace. Our circumstances around us might justify every negative feeling we can imagine, but life with Jesus will inspire nothing short of peace in spite of those external situations. It sounds weird.....even "beyond all understanding," but Jesus doesn't ask that we understand how it will work. He just asks that we will come.

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"I will guide him and restore comfort to him, creating praise on the lips of the mourners in Israel. Peace, peace, to those far and near," says the LORD, "and I will heal them. But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud. There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked." (Isaiah 57:18b-21)

Have you ever been seasick? I get motion sickness very easily, and have had the misfortune of experiencing this on the water. Anyone who has ever felt that type of nausea can relate to the powerful desire you have to just be still. You know that if the boat would just stop moving, the sickness would go away. "Please make the waves stop," you think. "If we'd just stop rocking....."

The prophet Isaiah likens life without God to the experience of being on the sea. There is no rest. There is no realistic hope of the water's tossing and churning ever stopping. As long as you're on the water, there will be unrest.
If that is life without God, then, life with God could be compared to a small rowboat on a pond. No waves and no churning....the only disturbance on the water being that of your own ripples as you move slowly through the still waters. God promises peace and comfort to those to come to Him, but also promises that for those who remain in their wicked ways, there will be no peace and no rest. Jesus restates this simple invitation when he asks anyone with burdens to come to Him and experience rest. The Lord wants rest for us, but we have to choose it.

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Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken. (Psalm 62:5-6)

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

In the Psalms, we can read about different people in all sorts of different situations. While their circumstances may vary, there is one thing in common between them all: each expresses an individual's very personal cries to God. In some cases, too, the Psalms express someone's "self talk," or the words they use in talking to themselves, to encourage and strengthen themselves when no one else is around to do so. Psalm 62 captures such personal conversation with God and self. These are the words of one who knows the rest that can be found in God alone, and who knows that nothing else can fill him with the hope that God can.

In the New Testament, Jesus invites others to this knowledge. Not knowing what their individual burdens might be, He asks them to come to Him to find rest, because He knows that is the only way they will ever find it.

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Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

When I was in school, I learned that a yoke is something used on large working animals to help them pull heavy things around. It went on their shoulders, and whatever they needed to pull would be attached using chains or ropes. Always an animal lover, this image always tugged at my heart. I imagined the poor animals having to work so hard pulling something so heavy, and never being able to get rest from the burden until the job was done.

Here, Jesus appeals to an agricultural society by using and image that would have been very familiar to them. He probably hoped to conjure a particular picture in their minds....an image of a man or woman hauling something too large for them to carry alone. Personally, I imagine a man stooped over and hardly able to move under the weight of a heavy yoke. This yoke--this burden Jesus speaks of--is different for everyone, but each has its roots in sin. We were never meant to have to bear such heavy burdens. God did not create us with that in mind. He did, however, have a plan to save us from it. He sent His son to bear that burden for us. Because of that love--that mercy--we can picture something else when we think of a yoke. Jesus' yoke, which He willingly and lovingly bore for us, was the cross. He carried it, stooped over and hardly able to move, to the place where He eventually died...all to give us rest.

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