Rest

I find it interesting that after studying through Matthew 6 at HFG this past Thursday, I hear more from Matthew at service this morning. Maybe God really wanted me to hear more about trusting and relying on Him. Brian S preached this morning out of Matthew 11, and the theme that stuck out to me the most was the theme of rest. Verse 28: "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." We can often find ourselves busy - busy with ministry, work, events, activities, family, etc. These can easily cause us to get tired and be weary - not only physically, but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We can get weighed down - "heavy-laden" - with the cares and concerns of life. Our response? Where do we need to go? God tells us to come to Him, and He will give us rest.

Brian said this: "See yourself in need of rest." A lot of the time, I tell myself, "I can handle this. I can do this. I got this." But what I really need is rest. Sometimes, you just have to say "no" to things. You can get overloaded and weigh yourself down unnecessarily, and a lot of the times it's because you refuse to say "no", because you think you can do everything. Yes, we can do everything through Christ who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13), but we should be wise in the things that we choose to do and also be wise in the things that we allow to enter our mind. We should trust Him to provide strength and meet our needs, but we also should not put the Lord to the test.(Matthew 4:7)

Verse 30: "For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." God's yoke is easy and His burden is light. This doesn't mean that life is no longer difficult and everything is absolutely perfect. The reason His burden is light is because He is the one carrying it. I like Brian's image of us being yoked to God; He has more than enough strength to carry the load. The load of life that we're pulling may be heavy, but it feels like nothing because God is the one that's bearing it.

Feeling tired? Feeling weary. Come to God. He'll bear the load. He'll carry you through.