The Medicine Cabinet: Go to Bed — Wednesday
Matthew 11:28b
“...and I will give you rest.” (NIV)
Alright, friends. We’ve acknowledged that most of us are tired (in different kinds of ways), yet some of us are resistant to prioritizing the rhythm of rest. But now, we have arrived at the center of the conversation we’re having this week: how to actually rest.
What kind of rest you need depends on what kind of tired you are. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about physical rest through sleep (which you’ll find really is a spiritual thing!), but today, we are talking about spiritual rest.
How do you rest when you’re soul-tired? The answer is actually in the first three words of today’s verse, when Jesus says, “Come to me.”
Jesus has issued this invitation to all who are tired. Why? Because He is the giver of rest.
When we are soul-tired, there is no real rest outside of Jesus. We could take a vacation, have a good night’s sleep, or spend the evening on our back porch with a glass of lemonade. And that all sounds nice, but unless we do it with Jesus, it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans for our weary souls.
When we’re soul-tired, we can either trudge through our fatigue by trying to run it out, sleep it out, ignore it, or numb it… or we can take it to Jesus. That means giving up our control and depending completely on Him. This kind of rest is not something we can strive for—it’s very much the opposite. It’s only something we can receive.
It takes a lot of trust. But when we give Him control, He gives us rest. He is a good shepherd—one that restores our souls and renews our strength.
One more note on this: Just like we can’t fix years of sleep deprivation with a 30-minute cat nap, we also probably won’t fix prolonged soul-weariness with a single prayer. It is a patient practice of taking our tiredness to Jesus and letting Him restore and renew us over time. That’s part of how He teaches us to rely on Him. And the more dependent we can be on Jesus, the less reliant we are on ourselves. That sounds like rest to me.
Wednesday’s Reflection
If you’re feeling soul-tired, read and reflect on Psalm 23. This is not just poetry—it’s a promise. Take your tiredness to Jesus today and ask Him to restore your soul.
