Tired and need a holiday

[Chrysostom]

You long for the sea and the mountains, and a season of rest from your labors. This weariness I understand, for the body and mind can grow heavy under toil. I will pray that God, in His mercy, grants you such a respite of travel if it be profitable for your soul. But hear a deeper word: the rest you truly thirst for no earthly voyage can quench.

Look at the many who flee to the coast or the heights, yet return with the same unsettled heart. Why? Because they carried their turmoil within them. The prophet David did not say, “He leadeth me to the sea” or “to the mountains,” but “He maketh me to lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside the still waters.” This pasture and these waters are the peace of His presence, the rest of the kingdom where sorrow and sighing flee away.

If you seek first that inner Sabbath, a soul reposed in Christ, dead to the clamor of the world, then whether you travel or stay, you will possess a joy no seaside can give. Do not mistake the broad way of leisure for the narrow path of true rest. Many who roam freely are hastening to destruction, while those hemmed in by circumstance find paradise in a quiet spirit. I beseech you, then, while I pray for your journey, pray yourself for a heart content with Christ alone.

Let His love be your holiday, His charity your refreshment. For if you gain a month of travel but lose that charity, you are nothing. The rest that remains for the people of God is not a place but a Person. Enter into that rest, and you shall find that even in a weary room, He spreads a table of green pastures.

 

[Silas]

The longing for a change of scenery, for the sound of waves or the quiet of the mountains, is not something to brush aside. Our bodies and souls need times of refreshment. God Himself ordained a pattern of work and rest from the very beginning, and He knows our frame. So I will pray that He opens a door for you to travel, to stand by the sea again or to breathe the mountain air. He cares about these desires.

Yet the Scriptures keep pointing us to a deeper reality: the rest that endures long after a holiday ends is found in Jesus Christ alone. There is a promise of entering into God’s rest that remains for His people today, and it does not depend on a place or a season. It is entered by faith, by ceasing from our own frantic efforts and trusting completely in the finished work of the cross. That is where the weary find true rest. Everything else, even the most beautiful coastline, is only a shadow. Jesus is our ultimate Sabbath.

Your tiredness may be more than physical. When we feel worn thin, often we are carrying burdens we were never meant to carry alone. The invitation is to commit the whole situation into the Lord’s hands and then simply rest because you know He is able to handle it. That doesn’t mean you ignore the practical need for a break; it means you trust Him to provide in His time and way, while you let His peace guard your heart right now, in the middle of the demand.

So let us not harden our hearts through unbelief, forfeiting the calm He offers. If you are fretting or anxious, it may be a sign that you are still striving to work things out in your own strength. He often lets us reach the end of our own resources so that we learn to rest on Him alone. Then it no longer matters what the outward circumstances look like; you rest because you are in His will.

I pray for travel and for a refreshing time away. May God open that door soon. But even more, may you discover the daily rest of walking with Jesus, who says to the weary, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.” May that inner quietness, that confidence that He will take care of you, be yours from this moment on.