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Church Family,
Rest: to refresh, to pause, to stop.
“Come unto me, all ye that labor 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 ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30
God calls those of us who are struggling with burdens to cast them down at His feet. He doesn’t want us to struggle, He wants us to rest and rely on Him. Some people think of Christianity as a burden. God does have things that He requires of us, but God’s requirements and God guidelines are for our good and they are light compared to the guilt and pain to follow if we carry our own burdens.
Some of us have things in our lives that weigh us down. They are heavy on our shoulders. We didn’t ask for these things. Some of these things we didn’t have anything to do with. Some of our burdens are put on us by others’ expectations, others’ mistakes, the way we look, the economic situation we live in, the color of our skin…things we cannot control. Some of our burdens we place on ourselves. We carry around bitterness, hurt, pain, our past sin, and the sin we go to when we are depressed and sad. God desperately wants you to lay those burdens down!
“Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” – Psalms 55:22
God loves you. He wants to refresh you. He wants you to press pause and give Him the controller of your life. When Noah was younger he was very into playing Lego video games. He loved those games so much, but he would get stuck and frustrated. When that happened he would press pause and hand the controller over to me and let me do what He couldn’t do. He could try over and over and get mad and quit, or he could let the one that can help him take control. Give God your worries, give Him your fears, give Him your insecurities, give Him your past, give Him your present, give Him your future! He is worthy of it all! He can handle it! He wants to hold you up!
“Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” – Isaiah 40:28-31
God is not too weak or too tired to act on your behalf! There is no obstacle too big for Him! Too often we operate spiritually out of breath, spiritually thirsty, spiritually malnourished. God wants us to be fed by Him, to wait on Him, to Thirsty for Him. And then God wants us to wait; wait for Him to refresh us, and to give us rest. Press pause and give Him control.
In Christ,
Pastor Phil