Come Unto Me

Come Unto Me…

Matthew 11:28-30 – “Come unto me, all ye 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 ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Jesus speaks these words to us all. He desires to give us rest. Rest from temptations. Rest from trials. Rest from heartache. The list goes on. Whatever it is, Jesus wants to give us rest.

This is a promise that offers multiple blessings. We may find deliverance from temptations. We may find strength for trials. And we may find healing for heartache.

Everyone who is a son or daughter of Adam is burdened. For instance, we are all burdened with sin. But we are not left to bare this burden alone. These are a few of the promises we may find in the Bible where Jesus is offering to save us from sin.

John 6:37 – “the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”

Exodus 14:14 – “The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”

Ephesians 1:7 – “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace”

Psalm 103:2-5 – “Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.”

Isaiah 1:18 – “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”

And finally,

Isaiah 43:25 – “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.”

There are many more than this. Jesus wants to save us from our sins. He died to save us. He paid the highest price possible. Because of His death, we can be saved. Will we let Him save us?

By resting in Jesus, we may also find rest from temptations. Sure, they will still come. But by resting in Jesus, we can resist them. By resting in Jesus, temptations lose their power. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Jesus resisted temptation the very way we are to resist it. He rested in God. In Matthew 4, to every temptation the devil threw at Jesus, Jesus responded with an “It is written.” When tempted to turn the stones into bread, Jesus said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Even Job said, in Job 23:12, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”) When tempted to throw Himself off the pinnacle of the temple, Jesus responded with, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” When tempted to worship the devil in order to receive the riches and kingdoms of the world, Jesus said, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.”

We may also find rest from heartache. Jesus wants to heal us from our heartaches. Has your heart ever been wounded? I know mine has. And it doesn’t matter how deep the wound is. Jesus will heal us if we will let Him. All we have to do is ask in faith. The centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant. The nobleman asked Jesus to heal his son. Jesus healed paralytics, lepers, those who were possessed, and many others.

In the book Desire of Ages, page 329, author Ellen White says,

“The Elder Brother of our race is by the eternal throne. He looks upon every soul who is turning his face toward Him as the Saviour. He knows by experience what are the weaknesses of humanity, what are our wants, and where lies the strength of our temptations; for He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He is watching over you, trembling child of God. Are you tempted? He will deliver. Are you weak? He will strengthen. Are you ignorant? He will enlighten. Are you wounded? He will heal. The Lord “telleth the number of the stars;” and yet “He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.” Psalm 147:4, 3. “Come unto Me,” is His invitation. Whatever your anxieties and trials, spread out your case before the Lord. Your spirit will be braced for endurance. The way will be opened for you to disentangle yourself from embarrassment and difficulty. The weaker and more helpless you know yourself to be, the stronger will you become in His strength. The heavier your burdens, the more blessed the rest in casting them upon the Burden Bearer. The rest that Christ offers depends upon conditions, but these conditions are plainly specified. They are those with which all can comply. He tells us just how His rest is to be found.”

In 2 Kings 19 King Hezekiah faced an attack from Sennacherib. When he received the letter from his enemy, he was distressed. But He did the right thing. He took this letter and spread it "before the LORD." He placed his troubles in God's hands. And God delivered. An angel came down and destroyed Sennacherib’s army.

In 2 Chronicles 20, King Jehoshaphat faced a similar issue. He faced annihilation from an army composed of three different nations. These armies were bent on destroying Judah. But Jehoshaphat, like Hezekiah, did the right thing. He placed his troubles in God’s hand. I like how he said it. In verse 12 of 2 Chronicles 20, he said, “O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

We may not know what to do in times of trouble. And we don’t have to know. We just need to keep our eyes on Jesus and rest in Him. And He will tell us what to do. With Jehoshaphat and Judah, God told His people to sing and He would take care of their enemies. And that’s exactly what happened. Judah sang, and God conquered their enemy.

We are powerless to defend ourselves from sin and all that comes with sin. We were born sinful and thus have no power of our own against it. That is why we need to rest in Jesus. He is our way out of temptation. He is our way to healing. He is our salvation from sin. Only through Jesus can we get out of this life alive. He is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the Gentle Healer.

To borrow another quote from the book, The Desire of Ages, page 528:

“To all who are reaching out to feel the guiding hand of God, the moment of greatest discouragement is the time when divine help is nearest. They will look back with thankfulness upon the darkest part of their way. “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly,” 2 Peter 2:9. From every temptation and every trial He will bring them forth with firmer faith and a richer experience.”

            We may face discouragement, temptation, heartache, and a million other things. But by resting in Jesus, by claiming the promise in Matthew 11:28-30, we may know by faith that Jesus is near to us.

            This is a promise I struggle all the time with accepting. It’s hard for me to accept that Jesus is here, that He wants to offer me all of these blessings. It’s a daily battle for me. And it may be the same way for many of you. And that is all the more reason for us to claim this promise. We need that rest in Jesus. We need His power. We need His forgiveness. We need to be totaltly and completely dependent upon our Savior and Redeemer.

            Just in closing, I want to tell you these words to the chorus of the song Unredeemed by the group Selah. Speaking of all of the situations in life that have caused us pain or other trials, all of the reasons why we need to rest in Jesus…the chorus goes like this:

Places where grace is soon to be so amazing

It may be unfulfilled, it may be unrestored

But when anything that's shattered

Is laid before the Lord

Just watch and see, it will not be unredeemed

            Let us all rest in Jesus.