As the Shepherd of our Souls, the Lord Jesus gives Rest to our Soul: come to Him!

As the Shepherd of our souls, the Lord Jesus gives rest to our soul; we need rest from all our toils, struggles, striving, burdens, and labor, for our soul is not at rest in this world, so we come to the Lord as our Shepherd to enjoy Him as our rest. Amen!

Thank the Lord Jesus for being our dear, wonderful, kind Shepherd! We as sheep led astray have returned to the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, and we now enjoy Him!

Each one of us has their own particular situation and set of circumstances, with our circumstantial sufferings and toils.

But praise the Lord, as beleivers in Christ, we have a Shepherd who knows our situation, cares for our need, and leads us on the paths of righteousness!

Human life in this world is wonderful, but at the same time it is full of suffering.

Even more, human life is full of struggles, striving, and desires to do this and that, yet without much success or happiness for the soul.

Many people try to make their soul happy, but the more they try, the more stressed they are, and the less rest they have in their soul.

This might be the case with us also, for we may try all kinds of things that this world says that we should do in order to calm ourselves down and turn inwardly to have peace through all kinds of methods and practices.

But we need to realize that we as believers in Christ have Christ living in us, and He is in our spirit to spread into every part of our soul.

How does He spread in our soul? It is not by forcing us to do this or that nor by coercing us into doing His will. He spreads into our mind, emotion, and will to make His home in all our heart by being the Shepherd of our soul.

How pleasant and wonderful is this! He comes to us in His love, He shepherds us according to God, and He takes care of our restless and troubled soul.

Only the Lord has a genuine care for the welfare of our soul, for He exercises His oversight over the condition of our inner being.

Remember, He created us in His image and according to His likeness, so He knows what we go through, what we think, what we desire, what we lack, and what is our need.

So He comes as the Shepherd of our souls to shepherd us by caring for the welfare of our soul.

He knows our problems, our needs, and our wounds; He does not criticize or condemn us but, as a Good Shepherd, He cares for our inner being and makes us comfortable so that we may open to Him for Him to make His home in our heart.

What a wonderful Shepherd we have!

As the Shepherd of our Souls, the Lord Jesus gives Rest to our Soul: we need to Come to Him!

The Lord is our shepherd; we shall not want (Psa. 23:1). The Lord as the Shepherd of our souls cares for us.

How does He care for us, and in what part of our being do we need His care? His care is not primarily for our spirit (our innermost being) or for our body (our outer man) but for our soul.

We see this in Matt. 11:28-30 where the Lord Jesus calls us all to come to Him and He will give us rest to our soul.

He calls all those who toil and are burdens to come to Him, and He will give us rest.

What is this toil? We toil in many ways and concerning many things.

On the one hand, as believers in Christ we may toil by striving to keep the commandments of the law and religious regulations.

As human beings, we toil by struggling to be successful at work, at home, and in society.

We do many things and we are involved in many activities, and we toil in many ways.

Our soul is so tired and burdened because of the many toils that we have. Oh, Lord!

The Lord Jesus laboured very much, and He worked to do the Father’s will and speak the Father’s word, but He did not toil nor was He burdened or stressed.

Rather, He acknowledged the Father’s way and declared the divine economy, even when others rejected Him and His ministry, and He calls all those who toil and are burdened to come to Him, and He will give us rest to our soul. We need rest in our soul.

We need to be set free from all toil and burden under the law or religion or under any work or responsibility.

Even more, we need perfect peace and full satisfaction.

Today in the world we do not have rest or peace, and those who want to find rest and peace for their soul invest a lot of time and money in doing all kinds of things, activities, practices, retreats, etc to find rest.

But rest cannot be found in anything outwardly. Only the Lord Jesus gives rest to our soul.

We may be somewhere nice to have a vacation, thinking we will find rest for our soul, but we are so stressed out in our soul in trying to visit this, do that, see that, etc.

We want to have a good time and rest, but there’s no rest inwardly.

We need to come to the Lord as the Shepherd of our soul, and He will give us rest to our soul.

We may be burdened with many things for the Lord’s move and for the service related to the church life, and we may toil very much; we need to come to the Lord to find rest for our soul.

We may try our best to be a good brother or a good sister, and this is a great burden for us; we need to come to the Lord to find rest for our soul.

We may have many pressures related to our work where we’re expected to perform and produce something, make a difference, and we live under this weight day by day, having no rest.

We don’t dare to rest even for a minute, for we may fall behind and we may need to work extra time to make sure we take care of our responsibility.

The Lord tells us very graciously to come to Him, and He will give rest to our soul.

What a gracious word we hear from the Lord, Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest! He further asks us to take His yoke upon us, and we will find rest for our souls. Wow!

We already have our own yoke and are heavily burdened and troubled, but the Lord asks us to take His yoke upon us!

Our yoke is heavy, harsh, and bitter, but when we take the Lord’s yoke upon us, we find that it is light, easy, and pleasant.

The Lord’s yoke is the will of the Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38), for He submitted Himself fully to the Father’s will (Matt. 26:39, 42).

We need to learn from Him. Our own yoke, our will, our desires, our thoughts, and everything about us is a hard, harsh, and bitter yoke, and we have no rest in our soul when we take our own yoke.

But the Lord is meek and gentle, not resisting opposition but having no self-esteem and putting Himself under the Father’s will.

He is lowly in heart, submitting Himself fully to the will of His father and not wanting to do anything for Himself or expecting to gain something for Himself.

Such a One lives in us, in our spirit; we need to come to Him and He will give rest to our soul.

He will make us satisfied in our soul, for we will do the Father’s will and we will be happy, even as the Lord is happy in us.

The rest He gives us is not outward rest for our body but inward rest in our soul.

May we learn to take the Lord’s yoke and come to Him to learn from Him, for He is meek and lowly in heart, and we will find rest for our souls.

His yoke is easy and His burden is light. His yoke is fit for us, good, kind, mild, gentle, easy, and pleasant.

He did the Father’s will and rested. Lam. 3:27 says that it is good for a young man to bear a yoke in his youth; this yoke is the Father’s will, which we can bear by coming to the Lord as the Shepherd of our souls.

The Lord lived such a life, constrained by and caring for the will of His Father (John 4:34; 5:30; 6:38); He was fully satisfied with the Father’s will and had rest in His heart.

Lord Jesus, we come to You as the Shepherd of our souls to find rest for our soul! We come to You as we are, with all our toils and our burdens. Oh Lord, we need rest in our soul! You see how much we strive and struggle to please others, to do our job, and to be a better person. We just come to You! We confess that we need rest in our soul. We stop our striving and struggling and we bring to You all our toils and burdens. We need not only to be set free from the oil and burden under the law or religion or under any work or responsibility but we also need perfect peace and full satisfaction in our soul! Oh Lord Jesus, give us rest in our soul! We take Your yoke from You and we learn from You, for You are meek and lowly in heart, so that we may find rest for our souls. Oh Lord Jesus, we do not want to bear our own yoke, which is hard, harsh, sharp, and bitter. We come to You with all our problems, striving, and toils, and we take You as our rest. Hallelujah, the Shepherd of our souls gives rest to our soul!

The Lord Shepherds our Soul by Leading and Guiding our Mind, Emotion, and Will

As believers in Christ, we need to come to the Lord again and again, for He is the Shepherd of our souls, and He gives rest to our soul.

He is in our spirit, and we need to contact Him and enjoy Him throughout the day.

We need to enjoy the Lord not only in the good times but even more, in the times that are not so good, when we are suffering, when we’re puzzled, and when we have no rest in our soul.

In our experience, we can testify that many times we don’t know how and where to direct our thoughts.

Our thoughts are so wild, going in directions that we do not want to go and being focused on things that we do not want to think about.

Who can help us direct our thoughts? We need to come to the Lord as the Shepherd of our souls, and He will give rest to our soul; He will direct our thoughts (Prov. 16:3; Deut. 30:19; Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 10:5; Psa. 46:10).

Our thoughts are wandering and there’s not much we can do to bring them to the right place, but we can learn to set our mind on our spirit (Rom. 8:6).

When we exercise our spirit to call on the name of the Lord until we touch Him, and we pray-read the Word of God, our thoughts will be directed on the Lord, and we will set our mind on the things which are above (Col. 3:2).

When we just make a move toward the Lord to contact Him and enjoy Him, He will direct our thoughts.

Our emotions are so wild and so complicated; many times we don’t even know how we will react toward others simply because our emotions are affected, being either up or down.

We are easily upset and we cannot control our emotions.

Sometimes someone says something and they “push our button” and we get upset so easily. Oh, Lord Jesus!

This can happen a lot in the family life and in the church life, for we have a close living and coordination together.

We need to come to the Lord as the Shepherd of our souls, for He will shepherd us in our emotion.

His shepherding comforts our emotion, calms down our fears and tempers our feelings, and He gives rest to our soul.

What about our will? Many times we have desires and make choices as an impulse, and even when we consider something and make a decision concerning it, our decision is so wrong.

Who can guide us in our will and help us make the right decision?

Thank the Lord for the Shepherd of our souls. He can guide us. He can shepherd our soul. He can give us rest in our soul.

May we learn to open to Him and come to Him as we are. May we learn to open to Him concerning all things, both small and great.

When we’re about to go shopping, we can just open to Him about it, asking Him to lead us and guide us.

He leads us to our destination, and He guides us to the right location; we simply need to come to Him. Just come to Him!

That’s what the Lord kept telling those around Him when He was on earth – just come to Me, and I will give you rest, I will give you life, and I will give you to drink of the living water.

We simply need to set time aside to come to the Lord and He will give us rest to our soul.

He will leads us and guide us in our mind, emotion, and will.

We don’t need any outward practice or routine to calm ourselves down and find peace within us; we need to just come to the Lord as the Shepherd of our souls, and He will lead and guide us to waters of rest, on the paths of righteousness, and to the feast.

Praise the Lord Jesus, our dear Shepherd!

Lord Jesus, we love You and we come to You as the Shepherd of our souls. You understand us thoroughly, and there’s nothing that You do not know about us. We open to You. We want to tell You everything. Oh Lord, You see how wandering our thoughts us and You know that we cannot direct our thoughts. We exercise our spriit to call on Your name and pray-read Your word. We choose to set our mind on our spirit. Guide and direct our thoughts in Your way. Oh Lord, You know our emotions – they are so up and down, so easily upset, and so fluctuating! We cannot deal with our emotions, Lord; we just come to You as the Shepherd of our souls! Lead us and guide us in our emotion. Temper us and comfort us in our emotion. We open to You, dear Lord, concerning our will and our decisions. Lead us and guide us in our will. Keep us coming to You as the Shepherd of our souls to be comforted, guided, led, and directed. How we love You, dear Lord, as the Shepherd of our souls!

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 Ted Williamson in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Peter, p. 192, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living a Christian Life and Church Life under the Government of God for the Economy of God (2024 Thanksgiving Blending Conference), week 4, Becoming a Reproduction of Christ and Experiencing Christ as the Shepherd of Our Souls.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want; / He makes me down to lie / In pastures green; He leadeth me / The quiet waters by. / My soul He doth restore again, / And me to walk doth make / Within the paths of righteousness, / E’en for His own name’s sake. (Hymns #527 stanzas 1-2)
  – O soul, are you weary and troubled? / No light in the darkness you see? / There’s light for a look at the Savior, / And life more abundant and free. / Turn your eyes upon Jesus, / Look full in His wonderful face, / And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, / In the light of His glory and grace. (Hymns #645 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – “Be all at rest, my soul!” Oh! blessed secret / Of the true life that glorifies thy Lord; / Not always doth the busiest soul best serve Him, / But he who resteth on His faithful word. / “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. (Hymns #654 stanzas 1-2)