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.
