The Gift of Rest: Finding Freedom from Spiritual Striving

If you’d like a shorter, pocket-sized version of this devotional series, I created a 7-day “Gifts of Jesus” guide that offers quick daily Scripture, reflection, and prayer prompts. It pairs beautifully with what you’re about to read – Day 1 “The Gift of Rest.”

The Exhaustion We All Know

The day after Christmas often brings a particular kind of exhaustion. The presents are unwrapped, the guests have gone home, and the reality of holiday preparations settles on your shoulders like a heavy weight. There’s the physical fatigue, certainly—the late nights, the cooking, the endless logistics of making everything perfect. But if you’re honest, there’s a deeper weariness underneath it all. The weariness of trying to measure up, trying to create the perfect celebration, trying to be enough.

That exhaustion isn’t unique to the Christmas season. It’s the same weariness humanity has carried since the fall, and it’s the same burden God’s people groaned under for centuries before Christ came. When Jesus extends this invitation to the weary and heavy laden, He’s not just offering a break from holiday stress. He’s offering rest from something far more crushing: the impossible burden of trying to earn your way to God.

The Burden That Couldn’t Be Carried

To understand the radical nature of Christ’s offer, you need to understand what the Israelites lived under. God’s law wasn’t given as a means of salvation—it was given to reveal sin and point forward to the need for a Savior (Romans 3:20). But by Jesus’ day, the religious leaders had buried God’s commandments under layer after layer of human tradition and regulation.

The current structure was rigid rules and regulations—methods for living their lives, seeking atonement for their sins, plus the additional regulations the religious elite tried to force on the people. The Pharisees constructed an elaborate system of do’s and don’ts, creating burdens that no one could bear (Acts 15:10). Wake up at the right time, pray the prescribed prayers, wash your hands in the prescribed manner, eat only approved foods prepared in approved ways, observe the Sabbath according to their detailed interpretations. On and on the requirements went, a crushing weight of religious performance.

And in all their efforts, they were still fallen, sinful people unable to please God and satisfy His holy requirements. That’s the cruel reality of trying to earn righteousness through law-keeping. The standard is perfection (James 2:10). One stumble, and you’ve failed. One wrong thought, and you’re guilty. The law didn’t make people righteous—it exhausted them while revealing just how far short they fell of God’s glory.

This is the burden Christ speaks to when He says “all you who labor and are heavy laden.” He’s talking to people who are spiritually exhausted from trying to climb a ladder to heaven that has no top rung. He’s addressing the weariness of striving toward a fruitless end, of working without rest, of performing without ever achieving acceptance.

Perhaps you know this exhaustion. Maybe you grew up in a legalistic church environment where acceptance depended on following the rules and rituals. Or maybe you’ve created your own internal system of religious performance, convincing yourself that if you just pray more, serve more, sin less, give more, then maybe—maybe—you’ll finally be good enough for God. Either way, you’re carrying a burden Christ never intended you to bear.

The Rest Christ Offers

By Jesus’ righteousness being attributed to us through His death and resurrection and our coming to Him in faith and repentance, we no longer are oppressed under the law, laden down with requirements we cannot hope to fulfill (Romans 8:1-2). This is the gospel that changes everything.

Christ didn’t just lower the bar or make the requirements more manageable. He fulfilled them completely on your behalf. He lived the perfect life you couldn’t live. He kept every commandment flawlessly. He satisfied God’s holy requirements in full. And then He went to the cross and died the death you deserved, absorbing God’s wrath for every sin you’ve committed or ever will commit.

Through Christ’s work, He has restored communion with God and has fulfilled God’s requirements of a perfect sacrifice to atone for the sins we commit (Hebrews 10:10-14). The sacrifice is complete. The work is finished. Nothing remains for you to do to earn your salvation because Christ already did it all.

This is why His yoke is easy and His burden is light. You’re not trying to manufacture your own righteousness anymore. You’re not striving to satisfy an infinite debt with finite resources. Christ offers us freedom from the law, from trying to earn our way into God’s favor, from striving toward a fruitless end. His requirement is simple: come to Him in faith and repentance. Trust that His work is sufficient. Believe that His righteousness, not yours, makes you acceptable to God.

This isn’t license to sin carelessly—that would be a gross misunderstanding of grace (Romans 6:1-2). When you come to Christ in genuine faith, He gives you a new heart that desires to obey Him (Ezekiel 36:26). But your obedience flows from gratitude and love, not from fear of rejection or desperate attempts to earn acceptance. You serve Christ because He’s already saved you, not to get Him to save you.

Saving faith will never be lost (John 10:28-29). It is complete—nothing required from us. It is a gift of a loving God, given by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). You can’t lose your salvation because you didn’t earn it in the first place. God’s keeping power is greater than your ability to fall away. The work that matters is Christ’s work, and that work is perfect and permanent.

Living in the Rest Christ Offers

So what does this gift of rest look like in daily life? It means you stop trying to earn what’s already been given. It means when you fail you run to Christ rather than hiding from Him. It means you can be honest about your sin because you know your standing before God isn’t based on your performance but on Christ’s.

It means you can serve God joyfully without the crushing anxiety of wondering if you’ve done enough. It means you can confess your struggles without fear of condemnation (1 John 1:9). It means you can rest in God’s love for you, knowing that nothing you do can make Him love you more, and nothing you do can make Him love you less (Romans 8:38-39).

This is the gift of rest Christ offers—not just a break from busyness, but freedom from the exhausting burden of trying to save yourself. Come to Him. Take His yoke. Learn from Him. And find rest for your weary soul.

Reflection Questions

1. Where in your life are you still trying to earn God’s approval rather than resting in Christ’s finished work?
2. What religious performance or self-righteousness are you tempted to rely on instead of Jesus’ righteousness alone?
3. How does understanding that salvation is entirely Christ’s work change the way you approach obedience and Christian living?
4. What would it look like for you to live this week in the rest Christ offers rather than the exhaustion of spiritual striving?

Prayer

Consider the specific areas where you’re weary from trying to earn God’s favor. Confess to Jesus your tendency to trust in your own efforts rather than His completed work. Thank Him for accomplishing everything necessary for your salvation and for offering you rest from spiritual striving.

If this devotional on the rest Christ offers encouraged you and you’d like to study further, consider checking out a couple of my suggestions below:

• Casting Your Cares On the One Who Cares for You ->
• Salvation Series ->