The Weary Christian Must Rest Upon Christ
By Elizabeth Prata
You might be feeling a bit weary, as I am feeling. Weary of our own sin, weary of the world’s sin. Weary of the election cycle. Weary of tragedies and disasters. Weary of being shocked. Weary of girding against shock.
Jesus acknowledged weariness. He knows of the weariness of the unbeliever burdened by his conscience and his heavy battle against God in his enmity; to the Jew burdened by ceremonial Laws, to the believer who struggles with awareness of His sin and labors daily to mortify it.
Jesus is the salve for weariness.
Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
JC Philpot wrote in his essay “The Laborer’s Rest“
“The Lord’s purpose in laying burdens upon us is to weary us out. We cannot learn our religion in any other way. We cannot learn it from the Bible, nor from the experience of others. It must be a personal work, wrought in the heart of each; and we must be brought, all of us, if ever we are to find rest in Christ, to be absolutely wearied out of sin and self, and to have no righteousness, goodness, or holiness of our own.”
“The effect, then, of all spiritual labor is to bring us to this point: to be weary of the world, for we feel it, for the most part, to be a valley of tears; to be weary of self, for it is our greatest plague; weary of professors, for we cannot see in them the grace of God, which alone we prize and value; weary of the profane, for their ungodly conversation only hurts our minds; weary of our bodies, for they are often full of sickness and pain, and always clogs to our soul; and weary of life, for we see the emptiness of those things which to most people make life so agreeable.”
“By this painful experience we come to this point: to be worn out and wearied; and there we must come, before we can rest entirely on Christ”.
“As long as we can rest in the world, we shall rest in it. As long as the things of time and sense can gratify us, we shall be gratified in them. As long as we can find anything pleasing in self, we shall be pleased with it. As long as anything visible and tangible can satisfy us, we shall be satisfied with them.”
“But when we get weary of all things visible, tangible, and sensible–weary of ourselves, and of all things here below–then we want to rest upon Christ, and Christ alone.”
— J.C. Philpot, “The Laborer’s Rest”
If you are weary, be weary in joy that Jesus gives us rest.
