September 27, 2018

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO GIVE REST

Matthew 11:28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Here is the description of the average Christian nowadays.

“LABOR”
This word in the Greek means “overworked”. It means to be “weary in well doing”. There is nothing wrong with working hard. In fact, we should work hard. However, this word carries the meaning trying to do some things that you are just not made to do. It implies a long, steady, intense labor, that just finally wears a person down.

“LADEN”
This word means “overburdened”. It means trying to carry something too heavy for me. This means trying to bear a burden that is just too big to bear. We all have been there. It is not that we are trying to do wrong, we are just trying to do too much. This passage describes an individual that is working hard, but that work wears him down to the point that he cannot carry the load that he is trying to carry. When we get to this point, something has to give.

I want you to notice something in this verse. Jesus notices that the individual is in this condition. Jesus sees you to, by the way, when you get in this position. Notice what Jesus commands us to do when we get like this. “Come unto me”. I do not know if you realize it or not, but the reason you and I get like this sometimes is because we have drifted away from closeness with God. We have worked so hard “for Him”, or borne so many things “for Him”, that we have not spent time “with Him”.

Why else would Jesus have to say, “come unto me”. If we were already close to Him and completely dependent on Him like we should be, we would already be there. We would not be able to get any closer. What happens is that we try to do too much and carry too much on our own. We don’t necessarily mean to, we just lose our focus. The point of this verse is not that we should quit working, and not that we should just give up doing what we are supposed to do. It means that we are to make sure that we do not try to do it on our own. We have to get close to the Lord. We have to be completely dependent upon the Lord. We cannot allow ourselves to do anything apart from him. You might be surprised that when your relationship with the Lord is close like it should be, it’s amazing how much we can carry, and how hard we can work, and yet be excited and energized to do more. It’s not really the workload that wears us down, it’s trying to carry it on our own that wears us out.

I encourage you today, ‘go unto Him, all ye that labor’. Get close to Christ, all those that are “heavy laden”. He “will give you rest”.