Come Lay Down Your Heavy Load

Come Lay down Your Heavy Load

Aren't you glad you do not have to be the Lord of your own life? Aren't you glad you can have peace that passes understanding and go to bed at night knowing that your sins are forgiven forever and that you have eternal life with God?

Do you sometimes stress, wondering how you are going to communicate the truth about life in Christ with those who do not know Him? Because whatever else we do while still living here in this body and on this planet, the Great Commission is to “make disciples.” Do you ever wonder if you are doing this? Finally I came to realize that this too is His responsibility.

There are many exhortations throughout the Bible that tell us to rest in Him, such as when He says to take His yoke upon us and learn of Him. That is possibly the most comforting passage of Scripture for a driven person like myself. How about you? Are you driven too?

Come to Jesus

“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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” The words of Jesus as recorded in Matthew 11:28-30.

Are you tired and heavy laden? Do you find it hard to rest? Does your mind seem to simply roll on and on and you can't make it stop? Are you constantly seeing how much work you can get done before you go to bed and stay up too late depriving yourself of sleep your body needs? I think the Lord knows us, don't you?

Sometimes I think the Lord is just trying to get us to relax a little bit and the demands of life and work and our worries about finances are exacting a heavy toll and all the while we just keep striving away. This has been hard for me to learn, and I know I'm not alone. So let me just encourage you to come.

The Juniper Tree

Sometimes the Lord speaks to me by dropping something in my mind about which I am not aware I know anything. It may be a word I don't actually know the meaning of and have to look it up in the dictionary. It may be something from the Bible that I may have read but have not looked at for awhile. Today this happened to me.

I was praying for someone else when the words “juniper tree” dropped into my mind. So I went to my concordance and looked it up. My concordance is a KJV concordance and I study from the NKJV, which I believe calls it a “broom tree,” but “juniper tree” was what I heard. Turns out it is the story of Elijah after Jezebel has threatened his life after he killed a bunch of her false prophets.

This is in I Kings 19, and you should go read it. It's all about how Elijah was all depressed and wanted to die and went and curled up under a juniper tree and an angel came and brought him something to eat.  Well, for people who don't believe the Bible I suppose this seems like a fanciful tale, but for someone who is seeking God, there is great encouragement here.

What Are You Doing Here, Elijah?

After angels have fed him and had him go on to the Mountain of God, he goes into a cave and God speaks to him.

“What are you doing here, Elijah?” God says to him. I am no theologian, I am just a worshiper, but this gives me hope. God just seems to want to have a conversation with Elijah. He asks him a question requiring some kind of response. Just like he asks you and me. “What are you doing here, Carolyn? What are you doing here, Agnes? What are you doing here, Justin?” And we may have to think about it for a minute.

After Eliljah tells God his troubles, God has him go out and stand on the mountain and this is the best part.  The Lord passed by, “and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”

We are Here For Them

Is this your heart's desire, to hear the Lord's still, small voice? Is this what you want? Because if it is, The Lord is faithful to speak to you in a personal way and make Himself known to you and give you peace. We really must not get how much He loves us. We really must not. The world surely does not, and we are here for them at this point.

We are Christ's representatives in this really crazy place. But He really has equipped us to do this thing, to live this life through Him and in Him and with Him so that others might also know and love this God who saved us and lives in us and never leaves us and never forsakes us.

 So, whether we are working too hard or hardly working or scared or broke or just rolling along, let's just take some time and get alone with God and listen for that still, small voice today and start the New Year right. We could do a whole lot worse, I think.