St. Augustine of Hippo, in a famous passage from St. Augustine’s Confessions, writes, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
What does he mean by “rest” exactly? Most people when they think of rest imagine laying on a beach, sitting by a campfire up in Vermont or relaxing in a hammock in the backyard. It’s a fact that our bodies can get very tired from the activities of life, especially when we overextend. We all need to sit down at times, and at least once every 24 hours we need to close our eyes and fade into slumberland. We cannot survive without rest. I’ve heard that the craving for sleep when we are deprived of it, is greater than the craving for food or water. I’m not sure if that’s true but it’s believable.
One of my favorite stories in the Bible is when Jesus and the disciples are out at sea and the wind and waves are terrorizing the boat. The disciples are very stressed out. I imagine them putting their best nautical skills to work to stay afloat. But where’s Jesus? Well, He’s asleep. He must have been a deep sleeper but he was finally woken up by a disciple who said, “Master don’t you care that we are going to drown?” Jesus gets up and commands the winds and waves to be still.
This story is a good illustration to keep in mind regarding this idea of rest. The disciples could not relax at all because of the threat of winds and waves crashing against their vessel. As long as they tried to take on the storm by themselves they were restless. But when they went to Jesus for help, it resulted in perfect calm.
Spiritual rest
Now, back to Augustine and his statement, he’s not talking about physical rest at all. What he is referring to is something spiritual. In other words, he’s saying that our inner world is troubled until we relax in the Lord our God. To rest in God is to trust Him with all our heart. Listen to what Jesus said:
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." — Matthew 11:28-30
The phrase “all who labor and are heavy laden” was not directed at people who were merely physically overworked. It’s much deeper than that. Jesus was talking about the burden of spiritual labor that leaves us weighed down in spirit. He’s talking about the way we try to be good enough to please God. It’s an impossible weight to carry.
I know what it’s like to be “heavy laden” spiritually. It’s when we genuinely want to please God but find ourselves almost in despair over our lack of ability to do what we feel the Lord is asking us to do. Even after I became a Christian I kept reverting back to the bondage of winning God by my excellent behavior. But, because my behavior was always less than perfect, I felt constantly condemned—which, of course, made it even harder to do good. Paul the Apostle described this cycle of despair this way,
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. — Romans 7:18-19
Guilt and Shame
It’s not really the inability, though, that makes us feel heavy laden, but it’s the guilt, right? We just feel so bad that we aren’t more holy, more devoted, more spiritual. And so we continue to labor away, trying with all our might, to be what we are supposed to be for God. We do all the things we know to do but guess what? The heavy-laden feeling is still on us. Despite our hearty efforts, we still feel like the Father in Heaven isn’t quite pleased with us yet.
What I’m talking about could very well be the greatest of all hindrances in our pursuit of God. When we take up the laborious burden of trying to be acceptable to God, we will always feel we aren’t doing enough. Because, well, we could never really do enough. We could always pray more, love more, serve more, read the Word more, give more, care more, share the Gospel more, worship more, and do many other things more. We will never attain spiritual “rest” by finally doing enough of all these things. In fact, the more you grow in holiness, the more you realize how unholy you are compared to Him who is Holy.
System of despair
This whole system I’m speaking of leads to spiritual despair. We just can’t get to the end of it. As long as we labor and strive to do enough to appease the Lord, we will be restless.
This spiritual restlessness of feeling like we just haven’t quite done enough yet is not a problem unique to non-Christians. In fact, many non-Christians are not restless but careless. They don’t care enough to be restless. It’s the person who believes in Jesus, or who is seeking to know God, that experiences being restless. I’m not sure if Augustine would agree but I think so :)
I’m struggling to get my point across so maybe I’ll just talk more directly to some of you. You care about your relationship with God, and you want to do the right thing. The Lord sees your heart. He hears your longings every day. You want to feel near to God but have a constant feeling that you aren’t doing enough to really be accepted and welcomed. It makes praying hard, as you aren’t sure how the Lord feels about you. You try to devote yourself more, in hopes that you’ll arrive at a “place of rest”—but it never comes. Some of you have been Christians for decades and have lived under this cloud of spiritual insecurity. I’m telling you today, right this moment, as a messenger from God Himself—you don’t have to live under that cloud.
But how then?
So you’re thinking, “Then what do I do to get free from spiritual restlessness and come into the rest of God?” Good question!
Virtually all religions in the world—and, sadly, many Christian churches—operate under the idea that, if we can just do enough spiritually, then, we will attain peace. People strive desperately to appease God by offering sacrifices or by saying prayers. They have volunteered their time and given their money to attain that rest. They have gone to the mountains in solitude and gone without food. There have even been cases of people inflicting physical pain on themselves to acquire the hidden treasure of spiritual rest. But they never find it this way! And we never will either. Remember the words of Paul to the Galatians,
We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. — Galatians 2:16
What Paul is saying here is that we can never be made right in God’s eyes by our human efforts, good works, religious deeds. He emphatically says, “no one” will come to a place of spiritual rest by working really hard for it. It just doesn’t come that way!
Think of it this way. Let’s say the moon is the only place of real spiritual rest we are all trying to get to. Some realize it’s so far away that they don’t even bother trying to reach for it. Others just lay on their roof at night and stare at it, thinking that maybe it’ll do some good. But, it doesn’t. Most people, realizing that the moon is the only place of real spiritual rest, try to go for it. They jump as high as they can, they shoot out of canons, they climb the tallest buildings and mountains and do their leaping there—but all of these attempts prove futile. The only way they can get there is by rocket. Are you seeing what I’m saying? The rocket is Jesus.
Good news!
Listen, it’s good to work hard and seek hard after God. Absolutely. But be careful that your striving isn’t a pathetic effort to do enough to satisfy the Lord. You must be sure your foundation is right. You aren’t made right by being a superstar Christian. If you have placed your trust in Jesus—listen!—you are in God’s favor as His child. You are in His arms—so relax. You don’t need to prove anything, earn anything, attain anything. As a child of God you are already fully accepted by the Father and welcomed into His rest.
This is good news! It’s really what the Gospel message is all about, but it’s so simple that we stumble over it. Jesus Christ came into this world, lived a perfect life, and then, subjected Himself to death on a cross for one reason—that we might have rest. The death of Christ accomplished what we could never accomplish. Christ paid the price for all our sin; He put to death all our guilt and shame. My friend, get out from under that cloud of condemnation. Come out into the sunshine of God’s favor.
The interesting thing about the spiritual rest that comes by faith is that it results in spiritual power that enables us to, like Paul said, “Toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Col 1:29). When we realize we don’t need to do anything to earn God’s love, it makes us so happy, that we find great motivation to seek Him and serve others. When we understand that the Lord smiles on us, not because we executed a perfect score in our Christian performance today, but simply because we are His children—then, we cannot get enough of being in His presence!
Prayer
As Augustine reminded us, “You have made us for Yourself.” Lord, You don’t want us to be restless and troubled, heavy laden and condemned. Lord, help us not to put burdens on ourselves that You already carried to the cross. Thank You, Lord, that Your blood shed on the cross washes our sins away. Thank You that You made us right by Your sacrifice. We don’t need to fret and frown under a burden. We are accepted. We can come boldly to You and tell You anything! Oh God, I pray for my brothers and sisters who live under that terrible cloud of feeling they can never do enough. Set them free! Let them know Your favor.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. — Isaiah 53:4-6