Reflections based on Matthew 11:28–30.

‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’ (v.28)

I don’t know whether you are like me – seemingly always busy, rushing around with a huge ‘to do’ list of tasks both for work but also outside of work (mainly for church). I can get to the end of a day frazzled and exhausted. It seems that our culture celebrates being busy; that somehow it is looked down upon if we leave work at a reasonable time, and plan in plenty of break times in order to be refreshed throughout the day.

But that is not the way that God wants us to live. In fact, He commanded Sabbath rest for our good (see Deuteronomy 5:12–15 – God gave the Israelites permission to take a Sabbath, to rest – which would have taken some getting used to as they were used to a slave taskmaster.

In order to make sure that they rested on the Sabbath, God even provided a double portion of manna for them the day before (see Exodus 16). For many of us, our so-called ‘Sabbath’ day – often the day we join with God’s people in our local church – is actually just as busy (or more so) than other days of the week. Do we believe God can intervene supernaturally to help prepare us and give us the time of rest that we need, just as He did with the manna?

For reflection: Take time to honestly assess whether you take a proper Sabbath or if this is something that hasn’t happened for a while. Perhaps you need to repent before God, and ask Him to help you set aside time to rest in Him each week…