COME UNTO ME ………..

July, 2008

Come unto me, all of you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light, Matt. 11 : 28 – 30.

Rest for our souls……

How many of us are looking for just that, rest for our weary burdened souls.

Rest from our battle with persistent sins.

Rest from attempting to get our balance sheet of sins and good works to show a positive balance.

Rest from trying to emulate the life Jesus lived, after all He said to learn from Him.

Rest from praying for God to help us to overcome a bad habit and then continually falling again and again for the same old temptation.

Rest from the burden of believing that God will only work in our life and the lives of others in response to our prayers.

Often the logical conclusion is then that “it “ does not work. Maybe for others, but not for me. And the load of guilt has just become a little heavier.

O yes, the desire is there alright, but how to do it?? (Rom. 7:18.)

When we find the yoke of Jesus hard and the burden heavy, then maybe, just maybe we need to learn something from Jesus that we have missed before.

When we accept that God’s Word is truth, bedrock truth, then it is up to us to ask the Holy Spirit what we are missing.Because obviously, we have missed something.

When Jesus promises to give us rest, then it would be obvious that he is also able to give that rest from his abundance.

So, how does Jesus obtain that rest?

Well, let us read the passage again.

……For I am meek and lowly in heart…….

There is the key…..meek and lowly in heart. Teachable, able to accept direction and being humble which makes one teachable and able to accept direction.

We already know by experience that trying to be consistently as loving and forgiving as Jesus is just plain hard work with unsatisfactory results.

Therefore we must look for something else.

That “something else” is that Jesus does not help us to find that rest, for He is that rest.

Jesus was never in a hurry, He was never anxious, He was always at peace, He always showed patience with people, even when these people showed anxiety and lack of faith.

Why? When we look for the answer in the right places we find some remarkable facts.

We find for example in John 5:19 that Jesus says that He, the Son can do nothing of himself, (of His own accord), but only what He sees the Father doing.

Or in John 8:28……that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself…..

John 10:30 ……I and my Father are one…..

Jonh 14:10 ……The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father who dwells in me, He it is that does the works.

Acts 2:22 …..Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through Him, as you yourselves know.

From all this we may know that Jesus did nothing on His own initiative, He was an instrument in His Father’s hands, no more, no less.

He acted in submission to His Father’s will at all times.

His inseparable union with His Father also gave Him His peace and rest, because He knew that His Father would accomplish everything that needed to happen through Him.

Nothing would be left undone that needed doing, Jesus rested in that assurance.

Now when Jesus says “learn of me”, that is what we need to learn, to completely rely on our Father to accomplish in us what needs to be accomplished.

To completely rely on our Father to protect our children when they grow up and are no longer under our control.

To make God responsible for the victory over our persistent sins.

Yes, that is right, He wants to be responsible! He is patiently waiting for us to throw in the towel. Until we do, He cannot work.

He is a jealous God who will not share His glory (credit) with anyone.

A young mother asked me one time if I would pray for her to have more patience with her two little children. I replied : how about if you prayed yourself?

She said; I have been praying and trying for months, it does not work.

I suggested to her to stop trying and to begin relying. Relying on God to make the patience of Jesus a reality in her daily life. Ask for it and rely, believe that our Father, who loves us so much will gladly do as we ask.

Only those dear children of God who have experienced having been made free by the power of God know the overwhelming reality of rest and freedom God wishes to give to all His children who are burdened by sin and unbelief.

And the same is true for any other burden we might carry.

Jesus is our Peace.

Jesus is our Rest.

But only if we ourselves get outside of the equasion. That is what we need to learn from Jesus.

For it is God who works in you to will and to do of his good pleasure, Phil.2:13.

When we stop trying and begin relying then we also learn that His yoke is easy and that His burden is light.

Relying on God to do all the work is not a copout, it is an act of faith and trust.

St. Thomas, July/’08.