The bad & good news!

Mat 11:28-30

"Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.”

Food for thought!

There are very few people who can tell others to learn from them. Jesus is doing exactly that: "Accept my teaching. Learn from me. See how I lived, and you too live accordingly; see how I loved and you too love accordingly; see how I suffered, how I lived with my enemies, how I took life's challenges, and do likewise. Imitate me. Take me for your role model."

Jesus guarantees us that if and when we live as he lived, that if we imitate him in everything we face in life, if we walk and work with Jesus every single day, we will get three things: he will show us how to take a real rest; we will learn to live freely and lightly; and we will recover our life. In other words, if we take Jesus serious, he will make us live life abundantly. This is why he came: I came that you may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows). (John 10:10).

The words of Jesus are very consoling, especially to those of us struggling with whatever burdens. I don't know your burdens; I only know mine. Jesus is saying, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out?" He does not say of what? In other words, what matters is your kind of burden; any burden we may have makes us welcome to Jesus. Financial? Professional? Family problem? Private life? You name it. To all of us Jesus says, "Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me; watch how I do it. Learn from me."

Most people are weary today. Many are troubled and agitated in our souls, and we try to find rest in all the wrong places. Some look to a mate, to a bottle, to a pill, to friends, to pleasure, to entertainment, to money. We look everywhere and try everything in the effort to find rest for our souls. No thing and no one in this world can give you and me the peace and rest we seek. That is the bad news.

The good news is that while we run here and there trying to find peace, there is a place of rest; a place of quietness; a place of peace called Jesus. He invites you and me to come to Him to find the rest our soul seeks. We are looking, running, seeking, struggling, striving, fighting, loving, rushing, searching all in an effort to find what only Jesus Christ can give.