Day 39
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30)
So how do we apply all that we have learned to our lives? What are we to do? How do we come to better express God’s love? How do we become the people He has promised we shall be?
Trying to make life work apart from Christ is a heavy burden we were never meant to carry. Over and over again we simply come with our loads and learn to rest in Him. We come to the One who is kind and approachable—gentle and lowly. We come to the One, who as a humble man acknowledged his absolute dependence on His Father. We come to the One who cannot be deterred in wanting to be with us and give Himself to us.
And so we continue in eternal life as we began—by coming to Jesus. Receiving what He gives is both the initial gateway into and the continuing pathway for life in Christ. Coming to Jesus, learning from Him and taking His yoke is the way forward into the glorious mysteries, “for eye has not seen, nor ear heard the things which God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Jesus finds pleasure when you receive what He paid the price to give. He never tires of your coming. It saddens Him to see you alone and trying to fend for yourself. No matter who the world says you are or what you have done, He wants you. Jesus isn’t put off by your sins, troubles, or partial belief. He doesn’t get frustrated with you after a while and wish you would stop pestering Him. You can’t shut down His passion for your wholeness.
Just as cancer doesn’t put off a surgeon, sin doesn’t put off God. The surgeon is pleased when people come for life-saving operations. The patient’s coming actually allows the doctor to do what he wants to do.
Jesus is so pleased when you come to Him; it lets Him do His healing, transforming work. When you bring yourself to Him, it satisfies His longing for your wholeness. His joy and ours rise together as He gives and we receive.
And so we come to the One who restores our souls and frees us to be the people He created us to be. We come and trust we will hear His voice. Then we come and ask that we will live in obedience to what we have just heard. We say, “I surrender all” and we mean it. And later we pray it again, but this time “all” somehow means more than it did before. We give our life to Him and He takes that life, works Himself into us and gives it back to us to live in oneness with Him. God grows us, not by making us self-sufficient, but by bringing us to know His sufficiency. Religion and the world are forever suggesting that we need to do something to improve ourselves—to contribute to our growth—to better please God. But it is our coming to God that pleases Him. Think of the father’s joy upon the prodigal’s return.
We are right with God, not when we get our act together, but when we come in honest acknowledgement that we were never meant to make it on our own—that we need continual care, courage, guidance … love.
We were made for relationship with our Creator. We were made to live in the stream of God’s grace —by letting Him lead in the dance of life. Over and over again, we come to Jesus and accept his invitation to partner with Him in life.
Nothing pleases Jesus more than that you come and receive what He freely gives because in coming and receiving you become your true self—the person He created you to be. He takes your stresses, anxieties, and worries and asks you to learn of His gentle and humble ways. He gives rest for your soul as you take His yoke and join in His life.
Ponder for a Moment
Come to Jesus.
Repeat and repeat and repeat ….