“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Matthew 11:28‭-‬29 (KJV‬‬‬).

REFLECT:
With the hustle and bustle of the lives we live in our present world we leave little or no room for relaxation. People are hyper-stressed out from the burdens of responsibilities, fears, anxiety, uncertainty, etc.

Now the kind of relaxation being referred to here is the kind that offers tranquillity, solitude, and peace or peace of mind. Often, people confuse this type of relaxation with holidays, get-togethers, or even sleep. These modes of relaxation are not the real deal, a lot of the time they complicate or compound issues.

For example, we may try to sleep, but our minds do not shutdown or rest. We find that we are still working our jobs, businesses, or concerns in our minds. The next morning, we are exhausted, drained, and cannot function optimally. The same goes for other forms of relaxation that we may be used to. We come back from a vacation, and it seems all we got was become even more stressed out.

This lifestyle is very pathetic, and do we see any hope in sight? Not likely one would answer. Rather it seems to be a vicious cycle with no end to it. Most of us do the same thing day in day out, and all year round.

The question we may wish to ask though is, what would we like to believe and what do we want for ourselves? Would we want to keep doing the same things, make the same bad choices, choices that would keep the unhealthy vicious cycle going on and on? This is a decision that solely depends on us.

In our Bible verse for today, Jesus offers us a helping hand, He allows us to choose to opt-out from the toxic cycles of stressful situations, burdens that sin and bad choices have put on us, by calling us into a place of rest, peace, and total dependency on His love and provisions of Grace.

The Grace to enter a place of peace, tranquillity, and solitary, Psalms 68: 6. So how do we enter this place? The solution is to accept and receive the offer our Lord Jesus makes to us presented in our Bible verse for today. We must come to a point of total surrender, and trust and allow Him to lead, guide, and run the affairs of our lives. By so doing He will personally shoulder, or bear all our burdens, concerns, worries, and troubles.

As mentioned earlier, this is a choice we must make, it, therefore, behooves us to choose wisely.

In the place of total surrender and trust in the Lord, heavy chains are broken, age-old burdens are lifted, and freedom is achieved. When this happens we can then truly experience the peace, tranquillity, and solitary our souls yearn for.

Ebimobo W. Obasi

PLEASE PRAY ALONG:

Give My Soul Rest

My LORD JESUS, only you can give my soul rest. There is no one like you. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, you know what I need, and you ask me to give you, my burdens. you give me the strength and peace I need for each day when I walk with You. So today, I give you, my concerns. I surrender my to-do list, and I trust you with my heart. Teach me to live from a place of rest. In JESUS MIGHTY NAME AMEN.