Matthew 11:28-29: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Taking a closer look at this perfectly-tabled offer from Jesus Christ, why then is this a common statement among the Christians of this age? –
Kupumzika ni mbinguni (translated understandably as “heaven is where we will rest”)
I mean; it is true that resting is in heaven but then; the only question is that: Isn’t heaven already with us now that Jesus Christ is already with us, even today? Indeed, the very first words of Jesus Christ in His public ministry were these: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near…” Certainly, Jesus didn’t say; “Repent, for I have come to take you to Heaven…” Among the majority of Christians, heaven is still being considered as a distant reality. Well, I make an effort to dismantle this stronghold today – it surely is a stronghold.
At this, the first thing we should gain a better understanding of is the word “heaven”. Other than it being an actual physical location that’s up above, there’s more that we as human beings; God’s children; should understand about heaven. If at all Jesus Christ; having come to us as a man; was able to bring heaven much closer to us, then one vital thing should also be plain to us: Heaven is first a reality before it actually materializes into a physical location.
In this case, Jesus was all about one thing: He came to introduce this reality which had been stored up in His mind at the time of His conception so that when we get to interact with this immaterial reality to the extent of it registering completely in our minds through His timeless teachings, we are deemed capable of actually receiving and sustaining the fully-materialized reality without having a disconnect from the reality. Definitely, for anything material we obtain in life, there’s always a prior need for us to have it register within our minds.
Let’s even take this simple instance: In order for any of us to actually get through a given career or business, there’s always prior need to get through mental training. This registers the entire reality of let’s say; being an engineer, doctor or businessman; which gives us the required capacity to hold the physical office of a doctor, business man or an engineer. We can understand this training as being the specific code that gets deposited within our minds in order to unlock this specific reality.
At the end of the day, we find ourselves operating in the ‘spirit’ of a doctor, businessman or an engineer in either of these three sectors: the medical, urban planning/housing or finance sector. Can you then imagine the kind of disconnect that would be there if at all an untrained “doctor” finds him or herself within the medical sector? Let’s now try and compare this to the average Christian who hasn’t been duly taught on heaven: How would it be for him or her when he or she finally gets to the physical place? Wouldn’t this individual be disconnected from reality as well? – Certainly, if one hasn’t found understanding in what is now, there’s no way for him or her to find understanding in what will be then.
In this case, what then is the heavenly reality all about? Well, it’s just as Jesus puts it: rest. In this way, Jesus came to restore our minds to the original state of rest which Adam had in God before his rebellion (sin). It is a kind of rest that isn’t just physical, as this present-day world cannot and will never afford any single person physical rest. Rather, it is a kind of rest that comes first to our souls whereby it begins with a change of mindset (repentance) before gradually proceeding to become outward rest which isn’t yet perfect but will be so on the perfect day of glorification – we begin to slowly walk towards rest as we gain a better understanding of life guided by Jesus.
At this, we currently rely on grace alone as the source of our inward rest as it empowers us to fight sin on a daily while the future that’s coming will cloth us in the fullness of God’s glory whereby sin will have been totally defeated and we will have perfect outward rest as well – this speaks to the criticality of making it our primary goal in life to prevail against sin.
Thus, when Jesus says to us: “Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest”, He means it this way: He’s come along to train us on a better way of living which involves giving our souls rest so that we can begin to center our daily lives on this inward state of rest. At this, we begin to live our lives as He leads us and work as He leads us such that one thing remains constant: We have inward rest for our souls – there’s no inward conflict brewing within any point. This then speaks to His next words whereby He urges us to take upon ourselves His yoke or His mantle which is basically to represent God on earth.
Surely, there’s no lighter task any man can receive than that of representing God (genuinely; not through outward performance, but through inwardly-driven inspiration by the Holy Ghost within us). This is because God is able to fully equip me and you with the necessary resources for the same. This begins with Him affording us His peace which commences an inward work that proceeds gradually to manifest outwardly until the perfect day when the sum-total of grace’s work in us will have brought on us the full measure of God’s glory.
In this simple way, heaven then becomes a present-day reality whereby each one of us gets duly trained by the Holy Ghost to lead a life that kicks off our rest from where it matters most: inwardly. This inwardly-driven work of the Holy Ghost gets to produce the outward fruit of love, joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, kindness, meekness, faithfulness and patience which are basically the personality traits that demonstrate what heaven is all about. Thus, we are all able to live today as if we are already in heaven so that when the perfect day comes; we will all be fully-equipped to dwell in the actual physical location of heaven without any inward sense of disconnect (seen in discontent, anxiety, bitterness, impatience, the lack of self-control, etc – there’s no room for any of these in heaven).
Get on that table today and really let Jesus Christ speak to you. He has all the rest you’ll ever need in life; a kind of rest that isn’t just confined to this present-day existence; but the kind of rest whose perfection actually sets in at the inception of the eternal age. Afford yourself His rest now so that in the coming future; you will be able to fully appreciate what it means to be rested in Christ. I mean; I always feel like heaven just wants to blast through my body through all kinds of song and dance at times and this is all glory to God! Come, and He will give you rest.
Romans 8:18: “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” – True to that.
