Scripture teaches that God is the Father of only those who come to Him through Jesus Christ His Son. But He is the friend to those who love Him. It is God’s desire to share life with us, to help us find meaning and purpose in it, to give us answers to the purpose in it, to give us answers to the problems we encounter – in our relationships and elsewhere. In the midst of our pain, it is sometimes difficult to believe that God could do anything for us. Yet it is in Him that we find rest during difficult times.

Take some time to pray, thanking God for being a Father and a friend to you. Ask Him to help you recognize the meaning and purpose in your life. Ask Him to give you strength and insight to withstand difficult times in your relationships.

Discuss or reflect on these questions:

What circumstances or situations can leave you feeling spiritually exhausted?

What does it feel like to be spiritually exhausted?

What could God’s rest do for your relationship?

Consider these passages for further study on rest:

Psalm 95:1-11

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸ “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,^[a]
    as you did that day at Massah^[b] in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Romans 8:32  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Find rest with the Lord, as he comforts us most when we need him. Devotional thoughts by Gary Chapman.

Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land after forty years of wandering in the wilderness. Yet, as Hebrews 4:8 makes clear, the Promised Land wasn’t Joshua’s ultimate place of rest. His ultimate rest would come in God’s kingdom, which all believers can experience in part now.

Jesus extends the offer of rest in Matthew 11:28 to anyone who is weary or burdened with guilt, anger, hostility, or anxiety. Notice that Jesus does not ask you to lay your own problems, nor does He promise to take away your problems, but He does promise rest.

Scripture teaches that God is the Father of only those who come to Him through Jesus Christ His Son. But He is the friend to those who love Him. It is God’s desire to share life with us, to help us find meaning and purpose in it, to give us answers to the purpose in it, to give us answers to the problems we encounter – in our relationships and elsewhere. In the midst of our pain, it is sometimes difficult to believe that God could do anything for us. Yet it is in Him that we find rest during difficult times.

Take some time to pray, thanking God for being a Father and a friend to you. Ask Him to help you recognize the meaning and purpose in your life. Ask Him to give you strength and insight to withstand difficult times in your relationships.

Discuss or reflect on these questions:

What circumstances or situations can leave you feeling spiritually exhausted?

What does it feel like to be spiritually exhausted?

What could God’s rest do for your relationship?

Consider these passages for further study on rest:

Psalm 95:1-11

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;
    let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
² Let us come before him with thanksgiving
    and extol him with music and song.

³ For the Lord is the great God,
    the great King above all gods.
⁴ In his hand are the depths of the earth,
    and the mountain peaks belong to him.
⁵ The sea is his, for he made it,
    and his hands formed the dry land.

⁶ Come, let us bow down in worship,
    let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;
⁷ for he is our God
    and we are the people of his pasture,
    the flock under his care.

Today, if only you would hear his voice,
⁸ “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah,^[a]
    as you did that day at Massah^[b] in the wilderness,
⁹ where your ancestors tested me;
    they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
    I said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray,
    and they have not known my ways.’
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
    ‘They shall never enter my rest.’”

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Romans 8:32  He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Find rest with the Lord, as he comforts us most when we need him. Devotional thoughts by Gary Chapman.