A Prescription for the Weary

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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 soul." Matthew 11:28-29

I don't think there is anything heavier or more awkward to move from one place to another than a piano. If you have ever witnessed or taken part in the moving of a piano, you know exactly what I am talking about. You would think that a piano was filled with a ton of lead if you ever tried to pick one up!

I just witnessed the moving of a piano the other day. As I watched my husband, his friend, and his father struggle with the grueling task of lifting the piano up a set of stairs, I was reminded of all of the people I come in contact with on a daily basis that are trudging through life carrying various heavy burdens along the way.

Our society is so emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted. There is a world of weary people (Christian and non-Christian alike) who need exactly what Jesus prescribed in Matthew chapter eleven, they need rest for their souls.

In Eugene Peterson's interpretation The Message, he phrases verse 28 like this:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest."

He very plainly shows us that the prescription for coming out from under the weight of our burdens is spending some one on one time with the One and Only -- Jesus!

There are so many examples in the Bible where Jesus ministered to the weary and burdened people that He came in contact with. He lifted the burdens of countless individuals who were weary from blindness, lameness, sadness, demon possession, blood disorders, sick or dying family members and ultimately, all those who were suffering from the sickness of sin. If He lifted their burdens, He's willing and able to lift mine and yours.

What heavy burdens are you carrying around today?

Are you grieving over the soul of a lost loved one?
Are you weary from a broken relationship?
Are you discouraged about your health or the health of someone you love?
Are you carrying around the guilt of past sins?
Are you just plain tired from the busy-ness of life?

We have a promise in this verse that if we come to Him, He will give us rest. If He is capable of carrying the weight of a cross and all of the sins of the world on His shoulders, He is more than capable of carrying you and I.

I need rest for my soul today. Do you?

I'm going to claim this promise. Will you?

Comments

I love my kids, BUT. . . .

"Schoolhouse Rock" was one of mine and my husband's favorite educational past times. Bob Dorough, writer for "Schoolhosue Rock," was a genius when he put educational factoids to quirky music and cute cartoons. From the preamble to the Constitution, to parts of speech, multiplication facts, how electricity works, and much more, Mr. Dorough slyly disguised learning and actually made it fun! Like all good parents, we passed this educational relic on to our kids. One of our favorite songs from "Schoolhouse Rock" is without a doubt " Conjunction Junction ." Its jazzy rhythm easily gets stuck in your head for the rest of your day ( sorry in advance! ). This song teaches how conjunctions mechanically work in a sentence and what their purpose is. The conjunction 'BUT' is one that we use all the time to connect two sentences or a clause to a sentence. "I like pizza, BUT I don't like olives on it." "I want to

Taking the Mask Off

If I’ve learned anything over the last few weeks of wearing masks when going out in public, it’s that wearing a mask makes it hard to breathe. The trapped air recirculating in and out gets thick and burdensome. The same is true for the invisible mask I wear on the days that I’m trying to hide the reality of what’s going on below the surface. There comes a point when the air that has gotten trapped between my invisible mask and my unfortunate reality gets so heavy that ripping it off and gasping for a dose of fresh, life-giving oxygen is the only remedy. ( Cue the proverbial mask selfie that everyone has had to take during quarantine. ) I think many of us frequently wear a mask, intentionally or unintentionally, to hide the reality of what’s underneath. We mask up to present a façade. A watered-down version of the true us. A suffocating misrepresentation of our current existence. We’re all guilty. One of my favorite personalities in Scripture is

Ponderings from Flo

As I take the last bite of a pint of Blue Bell ice cream (which by the way was the best ice cream that ever landed in my mouth - see picture below for the flavor), so many thoughts about the past week flood my mind. The first was rather insignificant -- I realized that I have never eaten a whole pint of ice cream in one sitting before tonight! Ice cream is always my go-to comfort food, but I didn't realize how badly my body expected that physical treat during times of distress! You never know how much you want something until you can't have it -- and ice cream clearly doesn't last when left in a freezer for five days without power. Perhaps my other ponderings will be more reflective and less self-serving . . . ~ The goodness and benevolence of people’s hearts is always a refreshing breath of fresh air during natural disasters. In our typical world of self-centeredness, times like these remind me that there is good in everyone. From neighbors sharin

Whole Heart Devotion

Search This Blog