Rest

Good Morning,

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Each time I see these verses I think of the many times when I've been weary in my heart and mind and burdened by something that's happening in my life. I think also of the many, many brothers and sisters in Christ who even today are equally, or even more so, burdened and weary this very day. My heart and prayers go out for all of us that we can do as Jesus has asked and turn to Him so that He can fulfill His promise to every one of us and give us His rest. He tells us here that HE is the answer when we're downtrodden and worn out by what's going on in and around us. Jesus said, "Come to me..." This, you see is the answer that we all seek.

He goes on to ask us to take yoke upon us and says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. The burden of love, I think, and the yoke of serving God and the world. It really is easy, don't you think? Jesus' burden of love? It doesn't cost us anything, really, in a financial way to take on this Love of Jesus and show it to the world. Yes, there might be some emotional cost to us, but, well, as Jesus tells us, that yoke...the yoke of love...is easy and whatever cost in emotion is well worth it. And, His burden? The burden of serving one another? Oh, that should be so very, very light...especially if we are all willing to serve each other as He would do and as we know we're supposed to do. You see, there's an old and very wise saying that goes, "Many hands make light work." We can replace the word "work" with burden here, I think, and we would see that if we all serve, then the burden of serving becomes very light.

Jesus also reminds us that He is "gentle and humble in heart" in these verses. It's something that we all need to strive for and even work on in our own lives. Too many of us, too often (and I include myself here, of course) are anything but gentle and way too far removed from true humility. But, well, that's another message I think. Enough said that we know in our hearts and minds that we do, truly, need to be more like Jesus in the "gentle" and "humble" areas of our lives. I think we can all agree on that.

Are we weary today in some way? Are we burdened by something happening in our life? We have the answer. Just turn to Jesus and He will give us rest.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David