Rest Your Soul

The alarm buzzes me awake long before I’m ready to rise. Getting out of bed, I do a Zombie walk to the bathroom. Before I’ve gotten dressed, I worry about a family member’s health, a friend’s grief, and meeting a big goal at work. “Where is the line between concern, worry, and faith?” I ask the Lord as I finish getting ready for the day. The weight of worry makes me feel heavy and tired. We all need times to rest our souls. Spiritual rest can be easy to overlook until we face the burnout of mental, emotional, or physical exhaustion. Before we know it worry, anxiety, anger, frustration, bitterness, unforgiveness, and stress burden our souls and bodies. A rest routine is needed to keep our bodies, souls, and spirits healthy and happy. Different from self-care, soul care restores our spirit, empowering us to experience peace and perseverance when we face challenges—a rest from the pressures. Do you need to find ways to lighten the load of worries and concerns? What is spiritual rest and why is it important?

Your SoulRest

Understanding spiritual rest and how to get it.

by Ginger Harrington

Spiritual Rest Versus Self-Care

Practicing spiritual rest or soul rest, helps us bear the weight of life’s challenges. When I’m weary, I often default to self-care rather than making time for soul care. These two concepts often overlap. Self-care has to do with caring for our physical, mental, and emotional needs. Soul care happens when we trust Christ with our needs, relying on His presence and help to sustain us. Here are a few self-care responses I gravitate to:

• “I need to get more sleep.” • “If I eat healthier, I’ll have more energy.” • “Lunch with the girls is what I need.” • “I can’t wait to chill out and watch my show on Netflix.”

Self-care is necessary and important, but it doesn’t always meet the need of soul care. Soul care brings mental, emotional, and spiritual rest, which is different from physical rest.

What Does the Bible Say About Spiritual Rest?

The Bible mentions rest 548 times. Jesus, our God with skin on, understands both the physical and soul needs for rest. One of my favorite passages is Matt. 11:28-30:

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Often, we approach this verse to find relief from our burdens. However, Jesus invites us to something much deeper than just feeling better; He wants us to live better. To live and work connected to Christ is the way to a restored soul.

Spiritual rest is the rest of faith, and Jesus offers to help us carry the burdens of this life.

Three Actions of Spiritual Rest

To drill down to the core message of Matt. 11:28-30, we find these three actions:

• Come to Jesus. • Take His yoke. • Learn from Jesus.

This way of living is not a quick-fix solution to our troubles. Rather, Jesus invites us into a life of companionship where we walk and work with Him moment by moment.

We find spiritual rest when we remember His presence and rely on His resources. We make choices to trust His experience, provision, and leadership. Every choice to believe, abide, surrender, and trust creates moments of soul rest from the burdens of strife, worry, comparison, frustration, and so many other mental and emotional challenges.

Learning from Jesus Helps Us Experience Rest

One day as I was meditating on this passage, the Lord dropped a question in my mind, “Whose yoke are you carrying?” This simple question began to relieve the emotional weariness I felt.

It was an aha moment of clarity. I was weary and discouraged by trying to carry the burden of things that really weren’t mine to carry. I realized I was carrying the burden of outcomes beyond my control. I needed to trust Jesus because He can bear the responsibility of the outcomes.

Identify the Burdens that Weary Your Soul

I did a soul check: what are the things that aren’t mine to carry that I need to entrust to the Lord? What burdens do you carry? Are you carrying them with Christ or trying to shoulder them on your own?

Depending on Christ involves trusting Him with the work, process, and outcome. It is the choice to trust Him with the moment, even when the moment looks messy. Eugene Peterson interpreted Matt. 11:28-30 this way: “Come to me, get away with me, and you’ll recover your life.” Soul rest has to do with recovering life and vitality that only comes through Christ.

It’s the shift of our attention to rest in the Lord and to release our burden to the Lord. Soul rest happens as we depend on Jesus to help, teach, and guide us—walking and working together.

Practical Ways to Find Rest for Your Soul

There are many ways to experience spiritual rest. Consider these ideas:

1. Ask God to examine your heart and then confess any sin that He reveals. Keep a short account with God, responding when the Holy Spirit convicts you.

2.Trust God with your friends and family. We need to trust the Lord with our loved ones because God is faithful and working in their lives. How much of our weariness comes down to the fact that we’re not trusting God?

3.Discover the freedom of forgiveness. Harboring offenses is one of the heaviest burdens we can carry.

Forgiveness turns the situation and the offender over to God. When we forgive, we lighten our load and take care of our soul.

4.Pray when you feel weary and burdened. “Lord, what do You want me to know about this burden? Help me to turn this problem over to You.”

5.Trust the outcome of your efforts in God’s capable hands. He can relieve us of the weight of worry. God didn’t intend for us to face our problems alone.

Trust doesn’t mean that Jesus will give you the perfect answer in the moment or solve your problems in a snap. It does mean He’s with you in the moment and you’re working together—yoked together. Spiritual rest comes as we depend on Christ. Letting go of the weight of worry, you can trust Him with the outcome in your situation, even if the outcome isn’t the one that you envisioned.

This adapted article first appeared on https://gingerharrington.com/ what-is-spiritual-rest-and-why-do-we-need-it/.

Ginger Harrington is author of Holy in the Moment and publishing director for a military nonprofit. Additionally, she equips women to thrive in a deeper life with God. Connect with Ginger to get your free guide to overcome negative thinking and other resources at GingerHarrington.com.

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