Finding Rest for Our Souls: Letting Go of Our Burdens and Taking Up What Christ Offers Instead
I have never been more tired than I’ve been since becoming a mom. Nighttime feedings in the infant years, the endless needs of the toddler years, and the looming fears about the big-kid years can often keep me awake at night and anxious during the day. Trying to meet the needs of everyone in my house, much less myself, is no small feat. It’s easy to feel like I’m running on a hamster wheel, wearing myself out while little progress is made.
Yet, I’m realizing so much of my exhaustion isn’t surface-level. It’s not always just a matter of needing more sleep, although that wouldn’t hurt. It’s much more than that, deeper than that.
So many of us walk around with our shoulders sagging, our heads down, and our eyes only half open. We’re worn and weary physically, yes––but also emotionally, spiritually, mentally. We’re exhausted from the pressure to perform, we’re tired of fear grabbing us by the ankles and crippling us, we wish we could stop constantly feeling like we’re letting people down. A solid night of sleep or a week-long vacation would help our tiredness, sure. But that only scratches the surface.
We need deep rest for our souls.
The Truest, Deepest Rest
In Matthew 11, Jesus talks about giving rest to the weary, saying, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matt. 11:28–30).
At first glance, his words might sound like a quick fix or a magic spell. But that's not what Jesus offers. He offers himself. He offers the truest rest, the deepest relief for our exhaustion that we cannot find anywhere else. He tells us that true rest is found when we take up the yoke of Christ, when we come to him instead of going our own way.
In Jesus’ day, Pharisees often spoke of carrying the yoke of the Torah. They accepted the burden of the Law. That was part of being a good Jew—you carried this burden and lived out all the fine points of the Law. But Jesus offers a different way, and he rejected the legalism and pride evident in many of the Jewish leaders’ lives. In Matthew 23:4, he calls out the scribes and Pharisees says, “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders…”
But the yoke of Jesus does not do this. The yoke of Jesus comes not from an attempt at performance or perfectionism. It comes from mercy and love. And so Jesus calls his listeners to give up the burdens they’re carrying, to stop hitching themselves to exhausting and impossible standards of the Law and of the culture. Instead, he’s saying, Here, I have something better. Hitch yourself to me, and when you take up my yoke, when you go my way, you’ll find what you need.
Letting Go of Our Burdens
What burdens are we carrying that we don't need to carry? What would it look like to carry his yoke instead? His yoke is easy and his burden is light, but too many times we carry what is crushing us instead.
As the writer of Hebrews says, “let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Heb. 12:1). Our souls are weary from carrying sin, carrying worry, carrying failure, carrying self-condemnation, carrying perfectionism. What would it look like if we threw off all those weights?
We’d experience a lot more joy, even in heartache. We’d experience a lot more freedom, even when we have work to do. We’d experience a lot more contentment, even if we don’t have as much as the next person.
Letting go of our burdens doesn’t mean we will never have suffering and sorrow. We will mourn and lament. We will grow tired in this life, because we are finite people living in a fallen world. But this is what Paul was getting at when he wrote from prison, “I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:12–13).
We can let go of burdens like condemnation and worry, perfectionism and insecurity. And we can cling desperately—even through tears—to the assurance that God knows, he cares, and he loves us with an infinite love. We can lay our burdens at the feet of Christ and receive what he offers instead.
There is no better rest for our souls, no easier yoke, no lighter burden than that.
