Come to the Lord, Learn from Him, Take the Father’s Will, and Find Rest for our Souls

When we come to the Lord as we are, bringing our burdens and toils to Him, He will give us rest; we can then take His yoke upon us – the Father’s will – and learn from Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, and we will find rest for our souls. Hallelujah!

As believers in Christ, we have been saved by God so that we can enter into God’s rest.

We have been restored to God’s original intention, which is that we would first rest with Him and enjoy Him, and then work together with Him and one with Him.

First of all, we need to enter into God’s rest; we need to enter into the reality of the Sabbath rest.

God wants us to rest with Him, for He has already prepared everything, He has done everything, and we need to simply come to Him and rest.

He is rest to us in three stages: He’s our rest today in the church age, He will be rest to the overcomers in the next age, and for eternity we will enter into His rest.

God rests when He gains a man, a corporate man, that expresses Him and represents Him.

When we enjoy the Lord and live Christ, we express God and represent Him.

When we’re built up together with the saints in the Body, the Body becomes the one new man to express God and represent Him; then, God obtains His rest.

When God rests, we also rest. However, most believers in Christ, right after they are saved, think they need to do things for God to please God.

So they start to work for God and do this and that for Him.

Even more, when some in Christianity are a bit more zealous and eager to do things for God, they are promoted, put in positions of authority, and given preeminence, even being told that they do all this in God’s name.

What God desires is that we would rest with Him, and then do things.

First, we need to enter into His rest. If we do not know how to rest with God, we will not be able to work with Him or for Him.

So much work is done in God’s name, and it all seems quite good, but the persons who do it are not in God’s rest; they toil and labour, but they do not rest with God. Oh, Lord Jesus!

May we be those who are not eager to work for God or do things for Him but rather, pay attention more to enjoying the Lord and entering into His rest to be one with Him and partake of His riches than to working for Him.

If we today enter into the Lord’s rest, if we pay attention to enjoying the Lord more than working for Him, we will be produced as His overcomers, and in the next age, He will be our rest to a fuller extent, for we will express and represent Him on the earth.

Come to the Lord with our Toils and Burdens and He will Give us Rest

In this age, the age of the church, Christ is our rest; He is the reality of the Sabbath rest.

We need to take heed to the Lord’s word in Matt. 11:28-30.

Here He calls us and all who toil and are burdened to come to Him and He will give us rest.

Do we ever feel like we’re toiling and we are burdened?

We all need to admit that so many times we have no rest, for we toil and are burdened.

We may toil and strive to keep the commandments of the law and religious regulations, or we may toil and struggle to be successful in our work or endeavour.

When we toil in this way, we are always heavily burdened.

The Lord calls us, those who toil and are burdened, to come to Him, and He will give us rest.

When we come to the Lord, we will find rest for our souls.

He did not toil nor was He burdened; He laboured one with the Father, taking the Father as His satisfaction and source, and He rested in the Father and with the Father.

He wants to give us rest for our souls. He wants us not only to be set free from the toil and burden under the law, religion, or any work or responsibility but also to find perfect peace and full satisfaction.

The rest the Lord gives us in our soul is perfect peace and full satisfaction.

Sometimes in the world, we go on holiday, thinking we will rest and relax, but we get even more tired, and when we come back home, we will rest from our holiday.

Our human life is full of striving, struggling, toiling, and being burdened.

When we work, we’re burdened, and when we are out of work, we are also burdened.

If we stay home and take care of our family and our home, we’re toiling, and if we go to the office or to school, we are burdened.

Our soul has no rest, wherever we go.

This is why we try so many times to find rest by doing the things that our soul likes, by finding some hobby or relaxing activity, but even then, our soul is not at rest.

Real rest for our souls can be found in the Lord. Only by coming to the Lord can He give us rest.

Even our relaxing activities and hobbies are a toil and full of burdens, for we need to take care of so many details and so many things. Oh, Lord!

May we learn to come to the Lord with all our toils and burdens, learn from Him, and find rest for our souls.

We can inwardly be filled with Christ as our perfect peace and our full satisfaction.

There might not be rest in our environment, and we may have no peace from those around us, but we may have full satisfaction and perfect peace in our souls when we come to the Lord.

When we come to the Lord as we are, where we are, and whatever we are doing, He will give us rest. May we not take this for granted but practice this day by day.

In the world we have only troubles and anxieties, but in the Lord we have peace (John 16:33).

The Lord left us His peace, but not as the world gives us but rather, He gives us full peace and perfect satisfaction (John 14:27).

The Lord’s peace and rest is in our soul; it’s an inward rest, not something that is outward in nature.

We have many troubles and harassment in our souls, but we can bring all these to the Lord and come to Him to receive and enjoy Him as our rest.

May we not be anxious in anything but tell the Lord all our requests, and the peace of God will guard our thoughts and hearts in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7).

We need to practice this in our daily life, especially as we sense that we have no rest and are troubled in our soul.

We need to come to the Lord and tell Him our requests, confess our anxious thoughts, and open to Him; as we come to the Lord, He will give us rest.

Lord Jesus, we come to You with all our toils and burdens so that You may give us rest. We open to You, Lord, and we bring to You all our requests, problems, and worries. We do not want to be anxious in anything but rather, in all things we want to tell You our requests and allow the peace of God to guard our hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus. We come to You from our toil of striving to keep the law and religious regulations. We come to You from the toil of struggling to be successful in our work. Oh Lord, give us rest for our souls. We want to learn from You. Grant us to have perfect peace and full satisfaction. We praise You, Lord, for Your ways. We declare Your divine economy and we come to You. We bring You all our toils, our burdens, and our anxieties. We come to You to receive rest for our souls. Amen, Lord, You are our rest in our soul today!

Learn from the Lord, take the Father’s Will, and Find Rest for our Souls

In Matt. 11:29 the Lord Jesus says, Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

It seems that yoke and rest don’t go together; when you’re yoked, you’re limited and under much pressure, but the Lord said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (v. 30).

What is the Lord’s yoke? It is the Father’s will.

The Lord’s yoke is not for us to be regulated or controlled by any obligations of the law or religion, nor is it for us to be enslaved by any work; rather, it is for us to be constrained by the will of the Father.

The Lord lived a life one with the Father, taking the Father’s will as His will, and He cared for nothing but the will of the Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38).

He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42), even unto death. And He asks us to learn from Him.

We need to take the Father’s will upon us, not to be enslaved by any work for the Lord or any obligation of the law.

May we learn from the Lord (Eph. 4:20-21), to learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.

We need to take the will of God as our yoke.

We’re not free to do as we please; we are yoked, and we learn from the Lord, who is meek and lowly in heart.

We shouldn’t think that we’re free and liberated to do whatever we want to do; rather, we need to see that, even as the Lord was yoked, so we are yoked, and this yoke is easy and the burden is light.

The Lord’s yoke is fit for us, good, kindly, mild, gentle, easy, and pleasant.

The Lord’s yoke, the will of the Father, is not hard, harsh, sharp or bitter.

Whenever we feel that we’re burdened and toiling, we need to check what kind of yoke we bear: do we bear the Lord’s light yoke or the enemy’s yoke, which is harsh and bitter?

May we come to the Lord and find rest for our souls by taking His yoke upon us.

May we learn from Him. He is meek and lowly in heart.

This means that, even though He was opposed and rejected, He did not fight back or retaliate but rather, He was meek and lowly in heart.

Throughout the opposition, He was meek, and throughout all the rejection, He was lowly in heart.

He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will; He didn’t want to do anything for Himself, and He didn’t expect to gain anything for Himself.

Rather, He wanted to do the Father’s will, no matter whether others welcomed Him or rejected Him, for He was fully satisfied with the Father’s will.

To be meek or gentle means not to resist opposition.

To be lowly means not to have self-esteem or seek to be esteemed by others.

The Lord Jesus submitted Himself fully to the will of the Father, and He didn’t seek anything for Himself, nor did He seek to gain anything for Himself.

Hence, regardless of the situation, He had rest in His heart, and He was satisfied with the Father’s will.

When we come to the Lord, learn from Him, and take His yoke upon us, we will find rest for our souls.

The rest that we find by taking the Lord’s yoke upon us and learning from Him is in our souls.

Outwardly the situation may not change, and there may not be peace or rest in our environment, but we will have rest and peace in our souls.

The Lord’s yoke is the Father’s will, and His burden is the work of carrying out His Father’s will.

His yoke is easy, not bitter, and His burden is light, not heavy.

Many times, however, we may be like the Israelites in Mal. 3:14, serving God bitterly and walking mournfully before Jehovah, not being happy at all with what we’re doing in our service to the Lord.

This means that we have the wrong yoke on us. Oh, Lord.

As we pursue the Lord, gain Him, grow in Him, and experience Him, we will also serve Him, but as we serve Him, we need to still come to Him and learn from Him so that we may find rest for our souls.

May we be saved from serving God mournfully; may we be delivered from not being happy about serving the Lord and walking in His ways. Oh, Lord Jesus!

When we come to the Lord and learn from Him, taking His yoke upon us, we will find rest for our souls.

We can come to the Lord in His word and by exercising our spirit to contact Him.

Especially as we read and pray over the Gospels, we will be infused with the Lord’s pattern, with His very essence, and He in us will bear the yoke of the Father’s will.

May we come to the Lord, take Him as our rest, and learn from Him, taking His yoke upon us, so that we may find rest for our souls in our daily living.

Lord Jesus, we want to learn from You, for You are meek and lowly in heart. You did not resist opposition, nor did You seek anything for Yourself except doing the Father’s will. We want to learn from You and take Your yoke upon us. May we care only for doing the Father’s will and not for anything else. We take You as our life of submission to the Father. May we live a life of caring for nothing but the will of the Father. Oh Lord, may we see that Your yoke is easy and Your burden is light! May we take Your yoke upon us and learn from You so that we may find rest for our souls. We give You all our struggling and striving. We give You all the rejection and opposition. We bring to You all our problems, toils, and burdens. Give us rest for our souls. Be our rest. Be the One in us who is meek and lowly in heart. We want to learn from You. We want to live You as such a One today.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ed Marks in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 31 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Laboring on the All-inclusive Christ Typified by the Good land for the Building up of the Church as the Body of Christ, for the Reality and the Manifestation of the Kingdom, and for the Bride to make Herself Ready for the Lord’s Coming (2023 Winter Training), week 6, entitled, Christ as Our Sabbath Rest, Typified by the Good Land of Canaan.
• Similar articles on this topic:
  – 10 Things You Obtain Immediately upon Believing in Jesus, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
  – The rest of victory, a portion from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, The (Set 1) Vol. 17: Notes on Scriptural Messages (1), Chapter 11, by Watchman Nee.
  – Taking the lead to be patterns, via, Living to Him.
  – Come to the Lord and Find Rest for Your Soul, via, Bibles for America blog.
  – We Are The Temple of The Living God, via New Jerusalem blog.
  – A life of rest, a portion from, The Kingdom, Chapter 22, by Witness Lee.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – “Be all at rest!” for rest is highest service; / To the still heart God doth His secrets tell; / Thus shalt thou learn to wait, and watch, and labor, / Strengthened to bear, since Christ in thee doth dwell. / “Be all at rest!” for rest alone becometh / The soul that casts on Him its every care; / “Be all at rest!” so shall thy life proclaim Him / A God who worketh and who heareth prayer. (Hymns #654 stanzas 2-3)
  – Thou sweet, beloved will of God, / My anchor ground, my fortress hill, / My spirit’s silent, fair abode, / In Thee I hide me and am still. / Oh, lightest burden, sweetest yoke; / It lifts, it bears my happy soul, / It giveth wings to this poor heart; / My freedom is Thy grand control. (Hymns #617 stanzas 1 and 6)
  – Every moment, every member, / Girded, waiting Thy command; / Underneath the yoke to labor / Or be laid aside as planned. / When restricted in pursuing, / No disquiet will beset; / Underneath Thy faithful dealing / Not a murmur or regret. (Hymns #403 stanza 3)