Day 17 of Her New Beginning: 31 Days of Healing, Identity, Renewal and Purpose
Matthew 11:28 KJV
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Some women know how to work, serve, organise, provide, encourage, solve problems and keep moving even when they are tired. What we do not always know is how to stop without feeling guilty. We can sit down physically while our minds remain standing. The body is on the couch, but the mind is answering tomorrow’s emails, remembering what needs to be bought, replaying yesterday’s conversation and wondering whether everyone else is all right.
Sometimes we even turn rest into another assignment. We schedule it, prepare for it, worry about whether we are doing it properly, and then spend half of the resting time thinking about everything we could have accomplished instead. By the time the day is over, we need rest from trying to rest.
Yet Jesus says something beautiful in Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Notice that Jesus does not rebuke the weary for being weary. He invites them closer. He does not say, “How did you allow yourself to become tired?” He says, “Come unto me.”
There is something about that invitation that challenges the way many of us think about strength. Perhaps strength is not always continuing. Sometimes strength is knowing when to come.
When Exhaustion Becomes an Identity
There is a difference between being hardworking and believing that exhaustion proves your worth. Unfortunately, the two can become confused. We can become so accustomed to being busy that when life becomes quiet, we feel as though something must be wrong. We measure a productive day by how completely drained we are at the end of it.
But exhaustion is not always evidence of faithfulness.
Sometimes you are tired because you have genuinely been carrying a demanding season. Sometimes you are tired because you have been serving faithfully. Yet there are also times when we are tired because we have accepted responsibilities God never assigned to us. We said yes because we did not want to disappoint someone. We stepped in because nobody else seemed willing. We kept solving a problem because people had become accustomed to us solving it.
Eventually, everybody is resting except the woman who made everybody else’s rest possible.
Jesus said in John 4:34, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” There is wisdom in those words. Jesus was committed to the Father’s work, not to every expectation people placed upon Him.
That distinction can be freeing. Every good thing is not necessarily your assignment. Every problem you can solve is not necessarily yours to solve. Every request does not require a yes, and every need does not automatically become your responsibility.
Sometimes renewal requires asking, “Lord, what have You actually given me to carry?”
The Strong Woman Needs Somewhere to Put the Weight
There is a compliment women often receive: “You are so strong.”
It can be beautiful to hear, especially when you know what you have survived. But being known as the strong one can quietly become another burden. People assume you will manage because you usually do. They bring their problems because you know how to listen. They lean because you have become dependable.
The difficulty is that managing is not the same as being well.
You can function while exhausted. You can smile while overwhelmed. You can continue meeting everybody’s needs while quietly wondering when somebody will notice that you have needs too.
This is why Jesus’ invitation is so precious. He does not invite only the woman who has completely fallen apart. He invites the woman who is still functioning but knows she is heavy laden.
You do not have to wait until you collapse before admitting that something is heavy.
I think sometimes we imagine that a spiritual woman should always be able to carry more. We pray for strength and then assume strength means never needing to stop. Yet even Jesus slept. He withdrew. He ate. He stepped away from crowds. He lived with an awareness that having a divine assignment did not require treating His humanity as an inconvenience.
Your body is not an enemy of your purpose.
Elijah Needed a Meal
One of the most tender pictures of God’s dealings with exhaustion appears in 1 Kings 19. Elijah had just experienced the dramatic victory on Mount Carmel, but afterward he reached a place of deep weariness. What interests me is God’s response.
God did not begin with a long sermon.
Elijah slept, and an angel provided food.
There is something wonderfully practical about that. We sometimes want every answer to arrive in a dramatic spiritual package, while God understands that there are moments when His daughter needs prayer, and there are moments when His daughter also needs to eat something and go to bed.
Rest is not unspiritual.
God created the body you are living in. He understands its limitations better than you do. Psalm 103:14 says, “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” God is not shocked that you become tired.
There are emotional limits too. Sometimes you have been listening to everybody else’s problems for so long that you no longer recognise how much you are carrying. There are conversations you need to stop replaying, outcomes you need to stop controlling and people you need to release into God’s hands.
Rest can therefore become an act of surrender.
Rest Requires Trust
Psalm 127:2 says, “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows.”
There is labour that flows from responsibility, but there is also labour driven by anxiety. Anxiety tells us that if we stop, everything will collapse. Trust reminds us that God remains God even when we close our eyes.
That can be humbling.
The world continues turning while you sleep. Heaven does not call an emergency meeting because you took an afternoon off. God does not suddenly discover that the entire plan depended upon you remaining awake.
Rest reminds us that we are participants in God’s work, not the source of it.
This is why Jesus could sleep in the boat while the disciples panicked during the storm. The storm was real, but Jesus was not allowing what was happening around Him to dictate what was happening within Him.
Sometimes the greatest rest you need is not another eight hours of sleep. It is rest in your soul.
You need rest from trying to control somebody else’s decisions. Rest from imagining everything that could go wrong. Rest from carrying tomorrow before tomorrow arrives. Rest from the exhausting need to keep everybody happy.
Jesus continues in Matthew 11:29, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me… and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
He offers more than a rested body. He offers a rested soul.
You Are Allowed to Stop
Perhaps one of the things God is restoring in this season is your rhythm.
There is a time to work hard. There are seasons that demand sacrifice, discipline and unusual effort. Purpose is not built through laziness. But there is also a time to stop, receive, breathe and enjoy what God has given you.
Rest does not mean you have abandoned your purpose. Sometimes rest protects your ability to continue walking in it.
You are allowed to enjoy a meal without turning it into a meeting. You are allowed to spend time with people you love without feeling that every moment must accomplish something. You are allowed to laugh, sleep, take a walk, sit quietly, put the phone down and admit that a problem does not need to be solved tonight.
Most importantly, you are allowed to come to Jesus carrying the weight honestly.
Maybe you have been asking Him for more strength when He has been asking you to put something down. Perhaps the answer is not always, “Lord, help me carry more.” Sometimes the wiser prayer is, “Lord, show me what I was never supposed to carry.”
As you enter your new beginning, do not bring every old burden with you. Some things belong at the feet of Jesus.
Work faithfully. Love deeply. Serve generously. Build courageously. But learn the holy rhythm of receiving rest from the One who never asked you to prove your worth through exhaustion.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I come to You with everything I have been carrying. You know the responsibilities that belong to me and the burdens I have picked up through fear, guilt, pressure or the desire to please people. Give me wisdom to know the difference. Deliver me from believing that exhaustion proves my value. Teach my body, mind and soul to receive Your rest. Help me work faithfully without making constant activity my identity, and teach me to trust You with the things I cannot control. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s Declaration
I receive the rest Jesus gives me. My worth is not measured by how exhausted I am. I will be faithful to what God has entrusted to me, but I will release burdens He never gave me. I refuse to make anxiety my source of strength or constant activity my identity. I can work, serve, build and still live from a rested soul. God remains God when I stop, and I trust Him with what I cannot carry. I am a Wonder Model Woman.