Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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." - Matthew 11:28-30 ESV
I’m sure you felt worn out and weary to the bone at some time in your life. All of us have. Many of us might feel that way right now. We all seem to have too much to do and not enough time to do it. I’ve been feeling that way for the last several weeks. I need to do better at resting in the Lord so that I don’t get so exhausted by life and all my responsibilities.
Look again at verse Matthew 11:28: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The very first word is “come.” To have the rest that Jesus promises, I have to come. Even though the work is never done, I mist make the time and the effort to come to Jesus. When I read this, I can hear Jesus gently urging me to sit with him, to be quiet for a while. I’m never going to get any rest if I’m always going a million miles an hour. I have to stop what I’m doing, come to Jesus and just sit a while.
I’ve found several verses in the Psalms that help me with this. One you may be familiar with is “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalm 46:10a ESV) In the NASB, instead of “be still,” it’s translated “stop striving.” We’re not going to be able to receive the rest Jesus has for us if we come to him with our thoughts distracted by everything we have to do when our quiet time is over. We have to come and stop striving for a while.
And we should come expecting to receive some refreshment, some word from God. This can take patience; God doesn’t usually answer on my schedule. But if I sit with Him and wait patiently, I will receive an answer. (Psalm 40:1)
Another beautiful picture of coming to the Lord is in Psalm 131:
Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother's milk. Yes, like a weaned child is my soul within me. - Psalm 131:2 NLT
When we come to the Lord to find rest, we need to let our thoughts and souls be quiet and still, like a child snuggling against her mother, content to just be there. When we come to Jesus, we need to take time just to be with him, to snuggle up close and stay awhile.
Think About: How will you make time to come to Jesus today?
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