Listen

“Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Think

I’ve struggled with this text. After many years of being told all of the things I need to do to be a good Christian, how can I accept that following Jesus is easy or light? Where is the rest if I’m supposed to be “taking up my cross” every day? That sounds hard, painful even.

And, it is… especially if my heart is torn between all sorts of different motivations. I want to impress my friends, be popular at school, look good, make the best grades, and be happy all the time. I can hear Jesus saying, “Wow, you have a lot of bosses in your life. How can you please them all?”

Maybe the secret is in simplicity. Maybe the calling is to set aside all of these conflicting motives. Perhaps the rest that is being offered comes when we set aside everything else but one thing, pleasing God. When God is all that matters, discipleship becomes joy, the joy of simply being who God created us to be.

What are your true motives? Are they confused and conflicting? Maybe it’s time you found rest in God.

Wade Griffith

Pray

God, why do I make everything so confusing and messy? Come into my life with your big eraser, and erase all that is not of you. Erase those things that muddle my thinking and keep me chasing after false happiness. Help me to find my rest in you. Amen.

Go

Don’t think, “Yes, in the future, I ought to…”

Instead, do it.

Do it now.