Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest

Matthew 11:28 (NIV)

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

We work so hard and so long at times that we need to heed Jesus command here.  We all work so hard, so long, involved with so many activities—at work, home, church, school, personal interests, and so forth.  Weariness comes from an imbalance of activity and rest.  In fact, the word in the Greek means “who work to exhaustion”.  Burden comes from all the responsibilities we have and/or assume. 

What does it mean “Come to Me”?  I believe that it means “surrender”.  Oswald Chambers, in his September 13 devotion from his book My Utmost for His Highest states: “It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest.  Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will— ‘Come to Me.’  And it is a voluntary coming.”

I like the thought that coming to Jesus is a voluntary coming.  He is not going to force us to come to Him, we must take that first step ourselves.  Often, people “at the end of their rope”, when they realize that they no longer can handle all their life’s challenges and problems, they voluntarily come to Jesus.

Yet, certain natural human barriers will try to keep you from coming to Jesus:

·  Pride that refuses to admit that you can no longer deal with your weariness and burdens.

·  Guilt that makes you ashamed of yourself where you are too embarrassed to come to Jesus for help.

·  Fear of having to give something up and give someone else control of your life.

·  Worry over how this decision to come to Christ might affect your life from now on. 

·  Doubt that Jesus really can deliver on His promise to give your rest and relief from your burdens.

It is very interesting that the root of all these barriers to come to Christ for rest involves human pride.  No wonder Proverbs 16:18 says that pride precedes destruction.  Indeed weariness and burdens will destroy you if you let them.  Pride is snobbery before the Lord and must be put aside forever to surrender to Him.

And when you come to Him what does He promise here?  Rest!  The Greek word for rest is “anapauŏ”, where we get our English word “pause”, and it means “to refresh”.  The rest that Jesus promises is like getting an excellent night’s sleep, how much better we feel that the night before.  No matter how weary and burdened we are, Jesus promises a spiritual good night’s rest. 

A priority in our lives should be to “come to Jesus”, to receive His “rest” so that we can refreshingly face the challenges and problems of our lives.  Spend time with Jesus every day, just sit somewhere where you can imagine Jesus sitting with you and pour out your heart to Him.  He promises to listen and to give us refreshment.  Indeed, don’t you feel refreshed every time you pause and talk to Jesus?  After sincere prayer, regardless of your life’s circumstances, don’t you feel better?  And, please note that Jesus promises rest from your weariness and burdens, but also in the next verse (Matt 11:29) promises rest for your soul.  Rest for your soul means to have God’s perfect peace in your mind and heart. 

“When you put your cares into His hands, He puts His peace into your heart” -- Unknown