You are wearied with many household tasks, and the night finds you still toiling when you ought to be at rest. This is a common sorrow, but it is needful you learn that self-imposed labors, however necessary they seem, will never by themselves bring peace. You plan and strive, yet the hours slip away, and sleep is cheated. This is not for you to conquer by mere resolve or a sharp ordering of the minutes. Come, cease your wearisome exertions, and believe in Him who says, āI will give you rest.ā The rest He gives is not a distant hope, but a present gift, rest now, in the midst of your duties, when you take His yoke and learn of Him.
What you feel is a restlessness born of carrying every burden yourself. You fear that if you stop, all will fall into disorder. But consider: does not the Lord, who gives His beloved sleep, know your frame? Sleep, when it comes, is a sweet token of trust. If you will resign your self-will, and say with the Psalmist, āWhat my God appoints is best,ā your heart may be quiet even before the work is finished. It is not that you should be slothful, the spiritual sleep of indifference is a danger, as when Jonah slept in the storm while others called on their gods. Yet there is a holy sleep, the rest of faith, in which you lie down in peace because the Lord makes you dwell in safety.
The trouble is not merely the volume of chores; it is that you do them with anxious hands, forgetting that you serve the Lord Christ in the doing. When you labor for Him, even the busiest day becomes a restful flight, as birds that sleep upon the wing. Cry to Him, āTeach me to mount above this fretting hurry.ā He will instruct you to leave what can wait until the morrow and to trust Him with the time He gives. There is a rest that comes after you first receive the rest of forgiveness and sonship, the rest of a learner at the Masterās feet. Learn of Him, and you shall find rest unto your soul.
Beware of the unbelief that says, āI must do everything now, or it will never be done.ā That mistrust breeds a thousand anxieties. The Lord who has begun a good work in your household will provide for it. Set a season, if you can, when you deliberately put aside the domestic cares and say, āIt is enough; my times are in His hand.ā I know full well that a household has many calls, and one personās diligence can be eaten away by the neglect of others. Still, your first duty is to live in dependence, not as a drudge, but as a child. The rest of heaven is not idleness, but holy activity in perfect peace; even here, you may taste that.
I will pray for you, that the Lord will teach you to order your day in wisdom, and to cease from the feverish strain that robs you of sleep. He may use this very discipline to make you rest more utterly upon Him. Remember, He does not lay light, He lies upon you, and bids you rest there and stay there. Trust, and you shall rest. And when you have done all, commit the unfinished things into His hands; He giveth to His beloved even in sleep. So far from being a sign of neglect, your sleeping in faith is a confession that you are not the one who upholds the world. Go to your bed with a simple word of prayer, and let Godās gift of sleep quiet your body and mind.