Jesus says, “Come to Me”
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
—Matthew 11:28–29
Welcome, 🙂
It’s tea time. A moment to slow our breathing, open the Word, and let God’s love steep into places we didn’t even know were tired.
Arriving home from the grocery store, I started gathering the bag handles, slipping one over each finger. As I lifted them, the bags were heavy, and the handles soon began to feel as though they would cut into my fingers.
My husband called out, “Do you need any help?”
“No, I’ve got this,” I replied.
How often do we do the same thing with life? We try to carry something on every finger, thinking, I’ve got this.
Then come the gentle words of Jesus:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
The Lord Jesus gently invites us to come to Him with all our burdens. Not just our sorrows and the multitude of responsibilities we carry, but also our worries, our need to fix everything, our urge to keep everyone happy, and the exhausting desire to control outcomes.
Sometimes we are weary because life is genuinely heavy.
But sometimes we are weary because we have picked up burdens Jesus never gave us to carry.
Why do we carry burdens Jesus never asked us to carry? Perhaps we have carried them for so long that we no longer recognize their weight. Perhaps we have become too tired or overwhelmed even to see it.
Yet He invites us to come near, to be still in His presence, and to cast all our care upon Him because He cares for us.
“Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”
—1 Peter 5:7
What a tender invitation.
Come to Me.
Bring the worry.
Bring the responsibility.
Bring the person you cannot fix.
Bring the outcome you cannot control.
Bring the burden you were never meant to carry.
Give it to Him.
Rest for our souls comes as we bring our burdens to Him, take up His yoke, and learn from Him. For He is gentle and lowly in heart.
A yoke speaks of surrender, direction, and walking under the guidance of another. The Lord Jesus invites us to come under His gentle care, to walk with Him, and to learn from Him day by day. We do not have to struggle forward in our own strength, carrying every burden and trying to control every outcome.
Perhaps today there is something weighing heavily on you. Or perhaps, without even realizing it, you have picked up burdens Jesus never asked you to carry.
Hear His gentle invitation again:
“Come to Me…”
You do not have to say, “I’ve got this.”
You can give it to Him.
A Quiet Prayer
Lord Jesus, I confess that so often I try to carry everything myself. I hold tightly to worries, responsibilities, people, and outcomes that I cannot control. Help me to recognize the burdens You never asked me to carry and to place them into Your hands.
Teach me to come to You, to take Your yoke upon me, and to learn from You. Thank You that You are gentle and lowly in heart, and that in You I can find rest for my soul.
Amen.
