Pumpkins and Promises: Come and Rest

Over the next 2 weeks, we’re going to be sharing some fun fall-themed recipes as well as some reflections on the Promises of God.

We pray you’ll be encouraged and inspired.

PROMISE 1:

Rest for your soul

Matthew 11:28-30

I held my darling boy, or at least attempted to, but he was writhing and thrashing around in exhaustion and pain. All I wanted to do was make it stop, but as he screamed in pain, my feeble efforts to sing him to sleep were utterly futile. I found myself weeping with him....I had done all I knew to do and he was in agony.

I became frightened by his intensity. Did I need to take him to the ER? What was so wrong? Why couldn't he rest?

I begged God to calm him, to take away the pain.

Then, I tried, once more to nurse him.

For whatever reason, he latched, he soothed, and finally he rested. I sat there enjoying my sleeping darling for hours afterwards. The peace was almost tangible.

How often are our hearts frantic and overwrought with stress and pain just like my son's body that night?

Jesus invites us to come. He longs to give us rest in our souls. He longs to teach us of Himself. He promises that His yoke is easy. His burden is light.

And many of us, we know this. We say we believe it, and yet we struggle and stress. We find ourselves more often than not, overwhelmed and overworked, weary, anxious, spent.

Why?

Well, in order to have the rest that Jesus promises, we have to take on His yoke. We have to admit and accept our own limitations. We have to own neediness.

My son had to calm down enough to be held and to nurse.

We have to be still long enough to learn of Him.

"When we disregard our natural human limitations, we set ourselves in God's place. When we insist that our voice and our work is essential and must be honored, we set ourselves in God's place. When we believe that with enough effort, enough organization, or enough commitment, we can fix things that are broken, we set ourselves in God's place. And when we do, we reap stress, restlessness, and anxiety. Instead of submitting to His yoke, we break it and run wild." -Hannah Anderson

Where do you find yourself this morning?

Are you wildly thrashing and striving?

Are you exhausted and overwhelmed?

Are you fighting for control and stability?

Come to Jesus. Be still and know Him. He's a gentle master.

"When Jesus calls us to take on His yoke, when He invites us to find rest through submission....He is calling us to safety. The safety that comes from belonging to Him. The safety that comes from being tamed." -Hannah Anderson

“Come, behold the works of the Lord...be still and know that I am God.” - Psalm 46 Click here to listen: Be still my soul