Come

Do you ever feel like you can’t approach God? The invitation is given but something is holding you back. Anger, fear, guilt, there are so many things that keep us from approaching God.

And maybe you’re there, you’re in His presence but there is something that keeps you from fully being free. Something is weighing you down, something is pulling you back, something has you bound.

I love that God knows this. I love that He knows exactly what will get in our way of coming to Him and finding rest in Him.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30

A simple calling: Come to Me

A simple qualification: all who are weary and heavy-laden

A simple promise: I will give you rest

But really, we take the simplicity out of it. I make it so hard for God to give me rest. So often I carry so much around with me, be it current burdens and responsibilities, guilt from things in my past, worries, fear, all these things add up and I buckle under the load. And I know that God will take them, in fact I know that He already has, but part of me wants to hold onto these things, to carry my burden myself. Call it pride, call it selfishness, call it guilt, but I refuse to let them go. And on the rare occasion that I do give them to Him, I often snatch them back. I pick back up the load I have already lain down.

But Christ offers us a trade, a very unequal one at that. He says, “I’ll take your load and you take mine.” And many of us react to Him in guilt. We have made these burdens, we should have to carry them. And there is comfort in some burdens, a feeling of purpose, control, responsibility. But these feelings only ensnare us and weigh us down more. Christ has already taken this load, it is already His. We just take it back and carry it out of ignorance or unrest and that is the very thing Christ offers us with His yoke, rest. We must take it to be like Him. We must give Him our burdens and take His light load to know Him. We are called to be like Christ, to be like-minded, to live as He does. He lives with a light load, an easy yoke, a freedom from the burdens of this world. He does not carry heavy burdens and we shouldn’t either.

So come to Him, bring your burdens, bring your yoke, release that control, let go of the guilt, let Him take your yoke and take up His. Learn from Him, experience His freedom, His grace, the lightness of His Spirit and then you will find rest.