*Text: Jer. 31: 25*
“For I have given rest to the weary and joy to the sorrowing.”
Anxieties of life are never in short supply. We have enough of them to last us all a life time and one of the things anxieties do to us is that they tend to weary us down, take away our peace and our joy. Anxieties are unhealthy weights that we should as much as possible refuse to make room for in our lives. Jesus in Matt. 6: 25 -27, warns against entertaining anxiety in our lives, He said “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?” This is very good advice coming to us from the Lord and we all will do well to comply. But just in case you find yourself sucked into the pit of worry and anxiety and this in turn as made you weary and perhaps depressed, what do you do? How do you come out to the place of comfort and rest? How do you gain your joy back? Our text for this morning has a very important information for us.
The first information that this text has for us this morning is that God gives us rest. Which of course implies that God has rest to give and He has it abundantly such that it is enough to go round. People may try occasionally to give us rest but they will always come up short because they also need rest themselves. God on the other hand has rest in abundance, it is in His nature to be restful and when He made the world, He programmed rest into nature and that is the reason why whenever you take the time to look at nature, you cannot but notice that it is always at rest even in the midst of so much unrest in the world today created as a result of man’s disobedience and deviation from the ways of God. The Psalmist acknowledge this very important fact that genuine rest is available only in God when he said in Psalm 62: 1 – “Truly my soul find rest in God; my salvation comes from Him”.
Secondly, our text assures us that God already has given us rest over everything that may be out to cause unrest in our lives. Note that, the passage did not say that He will do it, rather it says that He has done it. Yes we have the rest we need, we also have the joy we need as well to neutralize and cancel out sorrowful situations in our lives, families and all around us. All we need do is to first believe this truth presented to us this morning and then reach out to and connect to it and immediately it comes alive in us.
How is your soul today? Are you weary? Do you feel as though you are languishing? That is, do you feel as though you are growing weak, or you are decaying or you are declining? We don’t need to lose our peace or sleep because of fear, it is a waste of emotion and totally unnecessary, because God Has gone to work on your behalf, fighting your battles and bringing you His life and salvation. Whatever storms confronts you today, you can hold on to the truth that God is with you through them. Shalom.
Prayer Points
1. Father, you are the God of abundant rest, thank you for the provision of rest that you have made for me both now and even in the world to come.
2. Father thank you for your promise that you have satisfied my weary soul and restored joy to me
3. Father may your rest and joy in me neutralize and cancel out whatever it is that is out to create unrest in my life in Jesus name.
4. Father, I commit my fears and personal battles into your hands please fight fro me and give me rest on all sides in Jesus name
5. Father, I commit my family and the rest of my journey for this year into your hands, please help us walk in safety and may our rest never be troubled in Jesus name.
