Weary? Heavy Laden? Come!

Sweet Rest...

Matthew 11:28-30 says, “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.”

How many of us need rest? Rest for our weary souls. Rest for the aching in our hearts. Rest from a hectic schedule. Rest. There are days that rest seems to be a mirage in the dessert of busy-ness. However often it isn’t the physical rest that I even need. It is that soul weariness that comes from disappointments, unmet expectations, dashed hopes, broken promises, dreams deferred or even dreams demolished. Our souls are even more weary when we do not stop at the feet of the only One who can give us rest. Jesus.

You’ve already read that Jesus says, “Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I WILL give you rest.” It is wonderful that we can find rest in Jesus. We can come to Him and lay our burdens down at His feet and rest in Him. Although we find rest as Jesus promises when we come to Him we often find ourselves burdened and weary and weighed down again soon. Have you ever gone to church or Bible study or a ladies retreat just weary and ready for rest? You get there and almost as soon as the first song is sung or the first speaker speaks, you find the rest for which you have been looking. Oh, but on the way home that burden is building up in you. You feel your shoulders tense each mile you draw closer to home and you are NO LONGER at rest. You are no longer at Jesus’ feet and so you have picked up your burden again and carried it with you. So I have only figured this out recently, but Jesus doesn’t want you JUST to lay your burden at His feet. He doesn’t only what you to find rest. He wants you to find rest for your souls. That deep abiding rest. However that rest only comes when you lay your burden at His feet and take up His yoke. Yes, trade your burden that is bigger than you, that is more than you, that most often isn’t even yours to carry and lay it at Jesus’ feet. Then take His yoke and learn from Him! WHY? Well for one, His burden is light. It is lighter than what you carry around. It is lighter than your expectations for yourself. It is lighter than your hopes and dreams, than your schedule, than your house that HAS to be perfect. Also, He is gentle and humble so He isn’t a task master who expects more from you than you can give or who will oppress your spirit. He wants to teach you. He is easy on you, He won’t make you do more than you can nor will He force you into laboring for Him. He asks you to take His yoke, He doesn’t place it on you….Oh and if you take His yoke, here is the kicker, You can’t pick back up your burden. It has to stay at His feet. Pretty cool. Trading your burden, your sin, your shame, your pain, your fears for His yoke that is easy and light…Then is when we will find rest for our souls! Praise God we can rest in Him!!!

Battle of the Mind

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”  How painfully true this statement often is in my life.  Have you ever known in your head something to be true or logical, but your heart kept telling you different.  It is like when you were a kid and you started singing, “Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I’m going to eat some worms.”  When something happened that you didn’t like at home or at school.  Your brain was telling you, “look you are liked, your parents like you, your friends like you, even your sister likes you (most of the time), and God, well, He loves you ALL of the time.”  However your heart kept saying, “Nobody likes me.”  Oh or “Nobody understands me.”  When we let our hearts have free reign our minds lose the battle for control.

We spiral down the woe is me slide until we come face to face with depression or something like it.  The world tells us to listen to our hearts, but God says they are SICK.  They can’t make up their minds, they are deceitful…They lie.  Our emotions sometimes lie to us.  They tell us that what feels good is good.  They convince us that we deserve better or we are entitled to something that isn’t in God’s plan for us.  We often put our minds in neutral and give our hearts the reign.  The problem?!  Well, God says our hearts are deceitful.  So when hard times come, if we consult our hearts they often tell us to run when God tells us to stay.  Our hearts may even tell us that God doesn’t care or listen when our minds tell us that God loves us proved it by sending His Son.  Our hearts may twist God’s word to confuse us.

So what do we do with our lying deceitful hearts?  We tell them the truth and cling to it no matter what.  You heart is telling you that you can’t trust God?  Tell it, “God’s lovingkindness is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him.” Ps 103:17  Your heart says this marriage is too hard, I don’t love him/her any more.  Tell it, “Love is patient, love is kind…” 1Cor 13  Your heart says God doesn’t love you!  Tell it, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:8

You see our mind can win the battle over our deceitful hearts, if we fill our minds with God’s word.  What are you filling your mind with?  Is it junk that is wasting your space?  Is it listening to the lies our hearts try to tell us?  Or are you filling your minds with God’s word?  Are you arming yourself with the “sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God?”  Or are you coming to the battlefield without a weapon?  Oh Father, that I would be prepared for the battles within me.  That I would know and LOVE Your word so much that I would feast on it.  That Your word would be the air I breathe in and the words I speak out.  Father, through Your Spirit, and by Your word may I struggle against the lies from my heart so that I may please You in all I do.

Asking…

Have you ever been surprised at what God does when you actually ask Him?  Sometimes we Christians walk through life acting like, this is something I can handle or do on my own.  I’ll ask God when it is something big or I get into a crunch, but really He isn’t that interested in the small details right?  I should be able to decide how to spend my time today and if I give God about five or ten minutes in His word and praying for my struggling friends then I am good.  I’ve got my life together right now…I mean everything is going well.  Why bother God?

How foolish we are at times.  We settle for “good enough” when God has abundant life waiting for us.  Jesus didn’t just save us for a “good enough” life.  He didn’t rescue us from slavery to sin for an “ok” life.  NO He rescued us for more than that…For abundant life (John 10:10).  Does that mean we will have everything our hearts desire?  NO, but here is the kicker.  Why aren’t we living an abundant life?  Why are we settling for ok?  We aren’t asking…

Check out James 4:2, “You want something but don’t get it.  You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want.  You quarrel and fight.  You do not have, because you do not ask God.”  Asking God sometimes means He changes our hearts to His will.  It sometimes means that He moves in a miraculous way to take care of us.  It sometimes means He will encourage you to ask others again.  I am not good at asking others to do things because I would like to think I can do it myself, I don’t want to bother others, they are busy anyway…The list goes on…However God has put me in two positions recently that have required me to ask for help and even, (be still my heart), follow-up with people.  I am not talking about pressuring others into doing something God doesn’t have for them to do.  I am talking about personally saying, I see these great gifts in you that would bless others would you consider this position or role?

You see when you ask God He may tell you to ask others.  When you ask others He may tell you to do it more personally.  Instead of the mass e-mail or facebook message send a personal one or even…actually call someone on the phone.  I realize that it isn’t easy.  It may be outside your comfort zone, but if you don’t do it when God tells you to you are in sin.  So ask.  Ask God, ask others as He directs, but don’t forget nothing is too little for God.  We always remember nothing is too BIG, but never forget nothing is too little for Him either.