4-28-2024

Good Morning All,

            Matthew 11:28; “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

        Are you rested up from the Christmas holidays or are you wearing out from chasing kids or grandkids to ballgames or matches?  Are you rested or are you tired?  It seems that we are usually either tired or rested.  It usually seems that we are tired more often than we are rested but once in a while we are rested.  Don’t you wish you could figure out the being rested part more than being tired part?

   One of the greatest dangers we face is that we take our eyes off of Jesus and we place our eyes, and our trust, somewhere else.  Maybe you experienced a childhood that left you feeling left out or passed by.  You may have felt tired as you grew up and so you sought out your own solace.  You relied on your skill and wit.  As you grew you maybe came to see your family, your job, perhaps your marriage as your source of comfort and hope.  Yet trusting these things can leave you tired.  Placing our hope in the things of this world; like wealth, popularity, personal strength, or knowledge may seem like the right path but in the end, it leaves us tired.  It leaves us tired because these things always fall short.  There are always times when these will fail, and we will have to figure out a way to make up the shortfall.  So, the strength we think is here comes up short and we are left tired and empty.

    This is why Jesus invites us to, “come;” he invites us to come and rest.  He offers us the rest of a small baby as she lies against her mother’s chest, sleeping the deep and contented sleep.  She rests in the comfort and safety of her mother’s loving arms, hearing her mother’s heartbeat, feeling the gentle warmth of her mother’s touch.  She sleeps the deep sleep of total rest and comfort.  This is the rest that Jesus invites us to have.

    He invites us to the rest that results from knowing that all our needs are met.  He invites us to the rest where we trust wholly in his love to bring us that rest.  We do not need to seek anything else for that comfort and rest; it is all in the hands and the loving arms of Jesus.  So, when other things or other people fail us, and they will sometimes by selfish aim and sometime by no fault at all; they will fail.  The doctors can only do so much; our spouses and family can only do so much; our wealth can only go so far; eventually, everything else will fail but we will always have Jesus.  He will never fail us.  He never has and he never will.

    We can trust and take comfort, find our peace and our rest in his unfailing love; a love that saved you and me and gives us that hope that we seek and that rest that we desire.  Rest in his loving embrace.

Father of loving mercy, we come to you for rest.  We come because Jesus invites us to come to him for rest. Bring us by your Spirit to hear his invitation and to seek his rest.  Be with those who are tired from the cares of this world.  Give them your holy rest and peace.  In the precious name of Jesus, our risen Savior, we pray, amen.

 God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret