Come unto Me and I Will Give you Rest

Come unto Me and I Will Give You Rest

 

Jesus lovingly holds out His arms and invites you and me: “Come to Me all you who are troubled and weighed down with care, and I will give you rest.”  (Matthew 11:28) He calls out to everyone.  He doesn’t want anyone to perish. (2 Peter 3:9)   Are you weighed down with fear, hurt, sorrow, pain, exhaustion, anger, worry or loneliness?  If so, He promises to give you rest. Have you accepted His grand invitation?      

 

 So how do we go about doing that?   How do we come to Jesus and enter into His rest?  Scripture says: “You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”  (Jeremiah 29:13) We will find Him and His rest if we really want to!  If we look for Him with our whole heart!  If we are ready for Him, He will be there! (Matthew 7:7-12, Luke 11:9)

 

The Bible speaks of Christ and His teachings as being like a treasure buried in a field. When a person finds the treasure, she or he spends all their money buying the field so that they can have the treasure.  Jesus is the pearl of great price.  (Matthew 13:44-46) Finding Christ must be important to us or we won’t make the effort to look for Him.  

 

In order to come to Christ, we need to believe that He is there to come to!  That He is who Scripture says He is:  - Son of God and Savior. We need to trust Him or have “faith” in Him if we are motivated to look for Him. Scripture says that the Lord will keep us in perfect peace, if our minds are stayed on Christ, and if we trust Him.  (Isaiah 26:3) If we don’t believe in Him or have faith in Him, we won’t want to come to Him.  So, believing or having faith in Him is all important.  (John 3:16)  

 

But what if we don’t have “faith”?  Or our little “faith” is shaky?  In this modern, secular world, it can be difficult to have this “faith” the Bible speaks of, when we are carefully taught that modern intelligent people are too smart to believe the Bible.  And too intelligent to believe in the Jesus of the Bible.

 

In our secular world we are brainwashed to trust in ourselves and our own intellects.  To go along with and believe in the latest ideas about God that are popular. We try to put the God of the Universe in our little box and create the god we want, and the god that fits our needs.  Perhaps when we go on our search for Christ, we may need to be willing to follow Him even if He doesn’t fit into our little box.  Even if He takes us out of our comfort zone.  Maybe that is part of what “seeking Him with our whole heart” is about, I don’t know.  All through the New Testament we are taught that we have eternal life through Christ.  But we need to accept this gift of eternal life through “faith”.  (Ephesians 2:8-9) Our part is to have that “faith” in Christ.  That “faith” is all important.

 

But what if we don’t have “faith” in Christ? I believe God will give us this necessary “faith” if we ask Him - If we really want it - If we are willing to let Him change us. At least if we are willing to be willing.  If we have little faith in Christ, I believe we can grow our little faith by reading the Bible. Scripture say that: “Faith comes by hearing the Word of God” (Romans 10:17) Scripture also says that God’s Word (the Bible) is our spiritual food and we grow spiritually by getting into the Word. 

 

 Also, another piece in the puzzle of coming to Christ may be learning to be a bit humble.  If we think we are too intelligent to simply believe in Jesus, then we miss out.  Or if we are very wealthy or intelligent and feel that we have it all and don’t need Christ, we miss out. We gain the whole world but lose our own souls!  Scripture says that: “Pride comes before a fall.”  (Proverbs 16:18) We need to come to Jesus with a humble spirit.  

 

Jesus told a short story about how difficult it could be for a person who has it all to enter the kingdom of God.  Here is what He said: “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a person who has everything to enter the kingdom of heaven.  Again, I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a person with many riches to enter the kingdom of God.”  (Matthew 19:24)   

 

The “eye of a needle” wasn’t what we think of as having to do with sewing.  The “eye of the needle” back then was the name of a very small and narrow gate in the Jerusalem wall. The large main gate in the wall around Jerusalem was closed each night to keep enemies out.  If a traveler with a camel arrived late, after the main gate had closed, the camel had to stoop down and crawl through a small narrow gate called the eye of the needle.  Many times, all the baggage on the camel’s back had to be removed so the camel would fit through the narrow gate.

 

In finding Jesus and entering into the kingdom of heaven, we, like the camel, may need to be willing to get rid of our sinful baggage so we can fit through the narrow gate.  If we insist on keeping our baggage, we may be too big to fit through the narrow gate.  Jesus says: “I am the gate. Whoever enters through Me will be saved.  They will go in and out and find pasture.”  (John 10:9) So much peace and joy awaits us there.

 

Christ calls us to come to Him.  And we have enough faith to want to come.  His strong hand is outstretched, ready to pull us in to Him.  And His banner over us is love.  But there is baggage that we must leave behind. Friends that may turn against us. Laugh at us. A reputation that may suffer. There is a price to pay. And we will have to get down on our hands and knees to crawl through the narrow gate.  Are we willing?