“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28
The other morning, I woke up after sleeping for ten hours straight as I was recovering from being sick, and my very first thought was, “What a blessing it is to be able to get restful sleep.” I paused for a moment, grateful. Then a sobering thought crossed my mind: how horrible it would be to never be able to sleep at night.
That thought led me to consider the implications of hell—a place where there is no rest. The Bible says it is a place of eternal torment and separation from the presence of God. Revelation 14:11 warns,
“And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.”
Hell will be a place of no relief, no pause, no peace, no rest. An eternal, tortuous night with no morning. If you have ever gone through a season of persistent sleeplessness—those long nights when your mind will not quiet, when anxiety tortures you, when you long for the sweetness of resting but cannot grasp it—you already know that rest is not just a luxury. It is essential. Lack of rest wears down the body, the mind, and the soul. Now, imagine this condition—amplified eternally—without any hope of relief.
Hell is more than fire. It is a place utterly devoid of God’s presence, His goodness, and His peace. The worst part of hell is not just what is there, but what is absent: a sense of the presence of God.
But Jesus offers something radically different. He offers peace. He offers rest—not just for eternity, but for today. In Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus promised,
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus isn’t just promising us a heavenly rest after we die. He’s promising rest for our souls right now—amid the pressures, the anxieties, the grief, the long nights, and the painful seasons. When we come to Him, we are yoked to His strength, not left to carry life’s burdens alone.
We were not created for endless striving. We were created to walk with God in His peace. Isaiah 26:3 declares,
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
When we trust Jesus, we don’t just have the hope of rest in eternity; we have the power to live in His peace today. Friend, hell is real. But so is the abundant life that Jesus offers. He says in John 10:10,
“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”
That abundant life includes the rest of the soul—a life no longer tormented by guilt, fear, and striving. If you know Jesus as Lord and Savior, you CAN walk the path of peace. Yes, there will be hard days, sleepless nights, and times of sorrow. But you will never walk them alone. His peace guards your heart, and His rest sustains you.
But if you do not know Him, I urge you—today is the day of salvation. Don’t gamble with YOUR eternity. Don’t trade eternal restfulness for eternal restlessness. Come to Jesus. Find your rest in Him.
Reflection Thought:
Rest is not just for your body; it is for your soul. In Christ, we can rest now, and we can rest forever. Are you living in His peace today, or are you still carrying burdens He promised to bear?
Prayer:
Father God, thank You for the precious gift of rest. You have not called us to endless striving, but to peaceful trust in Your Son, Jesus. Lord, I confess the times I’ve tried to carry burdens that You never intended for me to bear. I surrender my anxious thoughts, my fears, and my restlessness to You. Teach me to abide in Your peace and to find true rest for my soul. Help me to walk each day in the peace of Your presence. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
