Stress-Free
by Mark Hoffman
If you are like me, when you’ve been on your feet all day, you’re just looking for a place to sit down. When I stand, all the weight is on my legs and they get tired. But when I sit down in a chair, all the weight, all the strain, is now being carried by something outside of myself. We call that “rest.”
Rest is when the strain and the burden is no longer being carried by you but is now being carried by something outside of yourself. So, when we invite people to come sit down, we say, “Come on, take a load off.”
People today are not at rest. I talk to people and I hear the same thing over and over again, “I am so stressed. I deal with so much stress.” If you find yourself stressed, listen to the words of Jesus,
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
- Matthew 11:28
Now remember, “rest” means that the weight is being carried by something or someone outside of yourself. The strain is gone. Someone or something else is carrying the load. Jesus says He will carry the weight; He will take the stress from your life.
What an incredible, liberating concept that religion is rest, that religion is meant to be invigorating and refreshing, because for most of all the people that have ever lived on the planet, they have never thought of religion that way. To most people, religion has been a burdensome thing. It has been a list of do’s and don’ts. It has been tedious ceremonies, difficult fasts – even mistreatment of the body.
This is how the natural mind thinks religion should be: “I have to do something hard and difficult and make great sacrifices so God won’t be mad at me and He will like me and He will bless me.” Unfortunately, this is how most people probably think about religion.
Now, all the other religions of the world are built on this kind of natural thinking. Take Islam for instance. “Islam” is an Arabic word for “submission.” The word “Muslim” means “one who is submitted.” And like all the other religions, it’s one based on works. It’s built upon the 5 pillars of Islam that must be rigidly obeyed. There is no assurance of acceptance or salvation. Buddhism has its difficult 8-fold path. There is no grace. There is just inflexible determinism. And in Hinduism, you’re born into the caste that your parents were. Everything in your life is determined by that caste and you can never escape it.
That’s how the natural mind thinks. That’s how the devil wants you to think about following God. That is how I used to think before I got saved. But Christianity does not start with a long list of things that you have to do or not do. Christianity starts with a big “Done.” Because Christianity starts with the fact that Jesus Christ paid it all, you can receive eternal salvation and God’s favor as a gift.
Instead of religious striving for God’s approval we have perfect rest in all of his promises. Instead of anxiety and worry we rest in His faithfulness. Because we are now free from fear, we are able to truly love. Fear robs you of the ability to love because love is self-giving but fear is self-protecting. You cannot love when you are protecting yourself out of fear.
There are certain things that we just cannot gain. We have to receive them as gifts. Every stupid thing I ever did was because I was trying to gain something that I couldn’t earn. Maybe I was trying to gain approval and acceptance and love by giving into peer pressure. Maybe you have tried to gain security by stealing or lying. But the only One who can love us in a way that makes us whole and complete – and the only One who is big enough to gives us complete security – is God.
Everything that we do in life we either do in order to receive love or we do it because we’re loved. We behave differently when we feel secure compared to when we’re striving to find security. These are His gifts to us. We can only receive it as a gift. And when we do, we are at rest.
