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

Weary and burdened! Doesn’t that describe the lives of most people?

Despite the veneer of pleasure and happiness, deep inside, people are restless, insecure, and overloaded with troubles and struggles. They try, in many different ways, to calm the storms inside that drive them to behaviour that only adds to their inner turmoil.

Let’s look at one of the ways in which many people try to drug their disquiet…religion. Apart from  criminal, addictive, or devious behaviour that drives them to violate their conscience until it is no longer a compass for their lives, people look for rest for their inward restlessness in many different religious systems.

(Karl Marx wrote that “religion is the opiate of the masses”. Whatever he meant, this became a policy in communist countries, to stamp out religious beliefs and practices. It didn’t work because people are born with the need to connect to a higher power).

What is religion and why do people instinctively need a “higher power” to lean on? Is it because life is too uncertain to depend on ourselves?

For the most part, a dictionary definition of religion says, religion is….

“… the belief in and worship of a superhuman power or powers, especially a God or gods.”

Trouble is that all religions invent the gods they worship. There is no objective, infallible proof that any god or religious system is of divine origin despite what their devotees think or believe. They may have a religious book or books to guide them but their claims are subjective. This means that anyone who turns to this “god” or “gods” for help is putting his/her faith in something or someone that does not exist except in their imagination.

This is, in fact, Satan’s ploy to draw people to himself. Who do people worship if their gods don’t exist? In reality, it’s the one who spawned the myth!

If people consider what happens when they worship false gods, they must ask the question, “Does the god I worship give me peace? Does the restlessness I feel go away?”

What makes people feel weary and burdened?

“Saint Augustine writes in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Perhaps Augustine’s most often quoted phrase, captures something that resonates deep within the human person. Restlessness is that desire to be filled and fulfilled.”

(https://beafraid.org – Augustine’s restless heart)

The difference between religion and faith in the living God who promises and give real rest, is fundamental. All religions, whatever they proclaim, involve doing something. Rituals, sacrifices, ceremonies, taboos, are all part of the religious systems which supposedly meet the spiritual needs of those who practise them.

The proof that confirms their uselessness is a world still in ferment. Look at any people who are forced to conform to a national  religion e.g., Islam or Hinduism. To remain true to their religious beliefs, they must ruthlessly stamp out those who refuse to conform even if it is a family member. Does this attitude and behaviour provide rest? How can it when murder violates their moral conscience? How can it when the individual has no say in his choice of religion?

Faith in the living God, on the other hand, is not a religion, whatever people may think. Faith in God and His word involves a choice to take seriously what God has done, revealed in a book so supernatural that faith in what it says transforms lives. Out of this trust in the words of God flows God’s supernatural response…rest.

The only requirement to enter into this experience of inner rest is faith in the one who has done everything necessary to deal with the real issue of our unrest…sin. No religion on earth has the solution for sin. We can ignore sin, deny it, argue it away, or try to forget it, but our guilty conscience refuses to go away. No even dulling our conscience with drugs, alcohol or any other addiction, can produce inner peace.

Isaiah 48:22 NLT
[22] “But there is no peace for the wicked,” says the Lord.”

The Bible, as much as people hate it, or try to obliterate it, gives us the only true solution to restless hearts.

Why are our hearts restless? I think we all know what it feels like to be alienated from a loved one. Despite the anger, frustration, resentment, or bitterness over the cause, we feel incomplete without the presence of that loved one…father, mother, son, daughter, uncle, aunt, cousin, or even friend. There is an empty place in our hearts, without their fellowship.

God is our divine Father. He made us for Himself. Sin has alienated us from Him and, until we are reconciled, we feel that emptiness inside. Religion cannot deal with our sin and its guilt and shame. Only Jesus can forgive and remove the cause of our restlessness and reconcile us to the Father. The great wonder of peace with God is that we need to do nothing but accept His gift of forgiveness by faith. He has done it all!

Faith in Jesus, in His death and resurrection, deals a blow to guilt, frees us from its gnawing accusations, and clears our conscience to approach Him with confidence. Only in Christ can we experience true rest.

Hebrews 3:18-19 NLT
[18] “And to whom was God speaking when he took an oath that they would never enter his rest? Wasn’t it the people who disobeyed him? [19] So we see that because of their unbelief they were not able to enter his rest.”

Hebrews 4:3, 9-11 NLT
[3] “For only we who believe can enter his rest. As for the others, God said, “In my anger I took an oath: ‘They will never enter my place of rest,’” even though this rest has been ready since he made the world…
[9] So there is a special rest still waiting for the people of God. [10] For all who have entered into God’s rest have rested from their labors, just as God did after creating the world. [11] So let us do our best to enter that rest. But if we disobey God, as the people of Israel did, we will fall.”

The invitation to enter God’s rest is open to everyone who gives up all efforts to be acceptable to God. Religion will never satisfy God’s holy standards. Only Jesus did, and faith in His Son is what pleases God most.

Romans 5:1 NLT
[1] “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”

This is the only rest that will satisfy our restless hearts.