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 admit that you can no longer deal with your weariness
and burdens.
· Guilt that makes you ashamed of yourself where you are too embarrassed
(there’s the pride factor again) 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 can destroy you. 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
“anapauĊ”, 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 (Matthew 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
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