Rest for Your Burdens

The invitation offered in Matthew 11:28 is generously inclusive. Most of us could admit to laboring at some point. We are invited to bring even our most grievous trouble—albeit the ulcer-causing kind. Those of us who are overwhelmed with responsibility, as well as exhausted, are welcome, too. Who isn’t glad Jesus calls us to Himself?

But if you and I were honest, do we really have any practical idea WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO DO with the invitation?

Am I supposed to stop undertaking everything?

Do I zone out of my burdened life and just quote scripture?

Does it simply mean to stop worrying?

What is Jesus calling us into out of our exhausted states—our situations and worries that are spilling into our functionality?

We need to know because these are the places we live!

Some are working ourselves dizzy.

Some of us truly are taxed emotionally. The loss has been too great this year. The financial issues are too complicated. The relationship drama is ever-present and oppressive. The emotional strains are taking a physical toll.

Or maybe what others genuinely need from you has over-extended you until you have become ill. My dear friend cared for her mother in her final months. The day after she passed away into Glory my friend suffered an illness that landed her in the ICU! She had given everything she had until the very end. 

Isn’t that like us? You and I have no sense! We often give beyond what is good for us, personally. Therefore, most of us are bone-weary desperate to experience the kind of rest Jesus beckons us into. 

This particular rest is a temporary respite from activity, or from service or work. He knows there will be times when we give everything we’ve got to the end. And there is nothing left. 

Jesus says "Come to Me – and I will cause you to rest."

There are no substitutions. Jesus is the only One who can give us what we need to get back in there. Nothing else will do.

I don’t know what you need. But He does.

You don’t know what I need. But He does.

God knows we need Him to cause us to rest.

For there is work to be done. And we want to be fit to do it.

Tell Him of your need and let Him fill it.