Rest

There was a time when the stars made music as they traveled in their courses, like a giant choir out there in space, and the whole universe was just filled with joy, until the day that a seed of suspicion was sown among the stars, and each was told that there were other stars that were trying to outshine them. Then the music stopped, and this festival of joy became a contest in vanity. Some of the brighter and more influential stars, of course, began to gather around them, the lesser ones, and they would be in clusters, and the lesser stars would say, you're the brightest star in the universe, and what a privilege it is to shine in your presence, until gradually this din of competition began to degenerate into a divided universe, and finally into outright war.

Far off in one of the darkest regions of the whole universe, billions of light-years away, so far away from the other stars that only God knew it existed, was a tiny star that was unaware of the tragedy which had occurred, and it went right on just shining to God's glory. It had no thought of trying to get attention from others, trying to shine more brightly than others. It never felt neglected by those who didn't pay any attention to it, it just went right on, shining through the praise and honor and glory of its creator, and so as it did, it continued to create music which, in time, spread through the silent distance and vastness until it reached the other stars, and when the music from this one little star was heard among the warring ones, of course there were those that went on with the war, but there were others who were immediately touched, and they stopped their fighting and began to weep, and they were filled with a peace and a rest inside, and they became homesick for the state of blessedness they once knew, and they gave up their fighting and began to sing once more to the glory of God.

Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Now the rest which Jesus is talking about here is obviously not the rest of idleness.

The laborers standing idle in the marketplace were obviously far more restless in their hearts than the ones who were working hard in the vineyard. This rest to which Jesus calls us is not some kind of rut that we're called into. There are people who are in a rut, you know, they get up in the morning, have their breakfast, go to work, then they come home in the evening, have their supper, they watch television until 1030, have their Ovaltine, go to bed, get up in the morning, have their breakfast, go to work, come home, have their supper, watch TV, have their Ovaltine, and go to bed.

But that's not rest. Nor is this rest which Jesus calls us a cop-out. There are those who are forever quitting the rat race, not because they see it as a rat race, but because they're losing.

They're not winning anymore, so they pick up their marbles and they go home, and they breathe a sigh of relief that they're out of the rat race, but they're not. They don't have any peace. The rest to which Jesus calls us is that which comes to a man or woman or young person when their life is focused on God alone, and when the heart is settled, fixed on doing nothing other than just loving Him.

Most of us have no conception of how restless and unsettled and seething and boiling and troubled and anxious we are inside until we get a taste of that rest which comes from God, that inner peace, the end of the inner war. Once you have that, you can live under all kinds of pressures, and you can work so hard that you're half dead at the end of every day, and still your spirit is never weary, and your soul never faints. You go from strength to strength.

You mount up on wings as the eagles. You run and are not weary. You walk and you never faint.

And this is the kind of rest which Jesus had through it all. Didn't matter what was going on in the midst of slander and envy and all kinds of evil and all kinds of ugliness. In here was peace.

Didn't matter whether He was praying, laboring in prayer, or teaching people, or feeding a multitude, or healing the sick, or falling asleep in the back of the boat in the middle of the storm, or hanging on that cross in unutterable pain. Inwardly He's at peace. His whole spirit is still burning and shining like that star out there in the middle of nowhere to the glory of His Father.

And this is the kind of inward rest which He wants to give to every one of us. Come to me all you who inwardly are laboring and are heavy laden and are troubled and upset and confused and disturbed, and I will give you rest. Now that rest which He offers us and to give us today means some specific things.

For instance, if we will let Him, Jesus will bring us from the unrest of vanity into the rest of His lowliness. 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. There can be no rest in us so long as we think, and most of us do, deep in our hearts that we have to be something in the eyes of men.

How can there be any peace when we already know how childish and how vain and how petty and how frail we are, even our sanity is, yet we think we have to make the world around us think something else about us. And when we're doing this we have the constant anxiety that a gust of wind is going to come along and blow off our masks. The thing which unsettled people concerning Jesus during His ministry in flesh and blood was that He was the only one in Israel who was walking around without a mask.

Everybody had a mask on. Some masks were beautiful, some were hideous, some were angry, some were ugly, but they were all impressive. And here's this guy with no mask on.

And he says, take my yoke upon you, learn from me how to live without a mask. And to live without wearing a mask is not something external. The minute you pull this mask off, another one will grow.

The mask will be there. It's always a sign of a puffed up heart, and it will be there as long as the heart inside is puffed up. Let the heart come down to size, the mask will disappear by itself.

And the way the heart comes down to size and becomes what it is meant to be is when I am willing to settle for shining to God's glory in whatever crummy little spot in His universe He chooses to place me. And that all I want to do is just shine to Him like that star shining in the middle of nowhere when I'm willing to do quality work if there's nobody around anywhere who's able to appreciate what quality it has, that I'm willing now to just spend myself to His glory and do what needs to be done if there's nobody around who can understand it and to praise God that He has put me in the situation where only His eye can appreciate what I'm doing. When I come to this place, then I begin to have peace.

Wonderful peace. Jesus will bring us into rest. If we will let Him, He will bring us out of the unrest of fear into the rest of trusting God.

When the disciples come to Him in the boat and it's going to sink, Master save us we perish, He brings them into rest. Not only the rest of calming the storm, which was indeed a relief, but it was the rest of faith. Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? And no doubt there are many among us right now who are anxious and troubled and afraid concerning tomorrow, their health, their job, their family, their children, the dangers they have to live in, what this world is coming to, and so forth.

And the Lord says to each of us now in terms of the circumstances where we find ourselves, fear not, only believe. Do your work well, do everything which is within your power to do, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves, don't be stupid, and leave the rest to your Heavenly Father. And know for sure that your Father will absolutely watch over you.

He will not suffer your foot to be moved. He that keepeth you will not slumber. He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The Lord is your keeper, the Lord is your shade upon your right hand. The sun shall not smite you by day nor the moon by night. The Lord shall preserve you from all evil.

He shall preserve your soul. He will preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore. If we will let Him, Jesus will bring us out of the unrest of anger and blame into the rest of dwelling in mercy.

Many of us are so full of anger toward the people who have wronged us and blame toward those we feel have put us in circumstances where we are that we can't possibly have any peace in our hearts. And do you think you're unique? You're the only one who can blame other people for your problems? Do you think there's one person in this world who can't find a hundred other people to blame for what he or she is into? Isn't it interesting how we can remember so clearly the wrongs that have been done to us and yet we pass right over the wonderful, the good things that have also been done to us. In the middle of all the injustices and wrongs that have been put upon us, every single one of us, if we're honest, will have to admit that there have been people who have done such good things to us without any strings at all.

Many of them were strangers. People who just happened to show up at the right place at the right time. People who spent all kinds of time, effort, maybe even money helping us out of our predicaments and never asked for anything in return.

And behind these people is a God who's just like that. And the incarnation of that mercy is Jesus, who takes the blame that should have been ours on himself and washes it away. And ever since has done nothing but show us mercy, nothing but mercy, if we only had the eyes to see it.

And who today wants us not only to receive mercy today in terms of whatever forgiveness or whatever blessing we need, but also wants us to learn how to dwell in mercy. To come out of the region of constantly blaming and constantly being angry into the place where we dwell in the mercy that has been shown to us. And then we will have rest.

Jesus will bring us out of the unrest of wandering thoughts into the rest of a concentrated life. You know, where our thoughts would have us go off in ten different directions at once, all the time. We're forever flying off on tangents.

So that we get out of that and come to the place where we're satisfied. Just to concentrate on loving God. You're trying to pray.

You know, and after the first five or ten minutes, here come the wandering thoughts. And you're in fantasy, the worst kind of fantasy. Or you're rekindling old fires that you should have let go of.

Or you're digging up, you know, things that are going to do nothing but rile you. And you're all confused until suddenly you wake up and realize what you're doing. You cry out for help.

And the Lord comes to you and gives you once again a vision of the blessedness toward which you move. And the minute you see that Lord, those wandering thoughts become pale. In a certain city, there was a garden which was owned by a billionaire that had in it the most magnificent beds of flowers to be seen anywhere on the planet Earth.

People came across continents and oceans to see these flaming reds and these beautiful blues and these blazing orange colors. And naturally, of course, the flowers themselves were quite aware of how unique they were. And we're very proud of the fact.

After all, weren't they the most beautiful garden on Earth? Didn't people come from miles around to see them? And then they would begin to argue over which of these flowers in this most magnificent garden on the Earth was the best of them all. Three miles from the billionaire's garden was a slum. In the slum was an alley which reeked with filth, flies, broken bottles, smelly cans, stray cats.

Somehow, one flower managed to push through all that and bloom on the edge of the alley. Little girl comes wandering down the alley, covered with dirt from head to toe. And when her eyes fall on that flower, her face beams.

And the flower beams right back. Now, do you think that that flower ever has the slightest tinge of envy for the ones that are three miles away in the billionaire's garden? Wherever we find ourselves, no matter where, if we will settle for that and concentrate in that place, our life on just living in God's love and concentrate and focus ourselves on His glory, everything around us will be touched with healing. And everything within us will be filled with rest.

And the one who can teach us to live this way is closer to us right now than the air we breathe. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart.

You shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is easy. Let's pray.

Father God, you know alone the wars that rage within our hearts, the trouble and the anxiety, the conflict, the fear, the vanity, the lust, the greed, the envy and the regret that burn within our hearts. And we're asking that you would send forth the spirit of your Son into our hearts afresh this day and give us rest. Teach us what that means.

Lord God, we pray that you'll give us a taste of it this day, one that we'll never forget, and it will be like a shining light guiding us the rest of our days. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.