Weather report from heaven: Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing.
Scripture- “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.”- Matthew 11:28-30
Insight: As we continue our series on Understanding The Times, today let’s consider in more detail the great hope we have as Christians because of the sufficiency, strength and power of Jesus Christ and the eternal nature of God’s Kingdom. This scripture from above gives us great hope in reminding us that Jesus doesn’t expect us to carry all the burdens and fears many are experiencing today. Jesus uses the word “weary,” to describe the state of people that he was interacting with on his travels and I think that same word is very applicable for today. I am many times weary from the bombardment of information I am asked to process on a daily basis and the increasingly difficult decisions we are asked to make in all areas of our life. It can feel like a heavy weight, a burden that we are asked to carry which can lead to us feeling weary. Jesus is telling us, pleading with us, to give it all to Him. He is saying to us today just like He spoke to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9 that “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
Do you feel weak at times? I know I sure do. Jesus is saying to us He wants to carry those heavy burdens for us, He wants to lift them off of our weak shoulders, and put them on His broad shoulders. Why? So we can find rest for our souls. Doesn’t that sound like something we can all use a lot of right about now? I don’t know about you but anything that can provide me with rest, peace and a lesser burden right about now, I am running to the front of the line to sign up for that. So how do we do this in practical terms? How do we make this a reality in our lives? Matthew 7:7 provides the answer: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” In Matthew 11:28-30 we are told what Jesus wants to do for us. Matthew 7:7 tells us to simply ask for His help and let me know how tired and weary we are, and then pray for Him to remove our burdens from us. I have seen this first hand in my own life when Jesus lifted the burden and pain of 25 years of running from the brokenness of my relationship with my dad, who left our house when I was 12 years old. Jesus took that pain upon himself to set me free when I first encountered Him and asked Him if He was really God, if He would do that for me. He did and a lifetime of burden and pain melted away into His grace and love. He isn’t a Cosmic Bellboy, and His answer might take a while or require you to let go of some destructive habits. But He does want you to rely on Him, and He is the only One that you will ever encounter that can truly set you free from all of your fears, pain, burdens and weariness. So, ask Him to carry your burdens. He has already promised He will!
Prayer: Father God, thank You that You came close to us in the form of Your Son Jesus, even when we were far away. Romans 5:8 promises “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” You accept us right where we are. We don’t need to get cleaned up to be in your presence, we simply need to ask for Your help in Jesus’ mighty name. Amen!
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