Burdened, Busy or Blessed

We are blessed people who get to tap into one of Jesus’ most profound proposals when He said, “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to Me. Get away with Me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with Me and work with Me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with Me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus is offering all of us who will be honest about life’s struggles and stresses, and life’s pressures and pain a spiritual rest stop today and every day! Jesus says, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light” – doesn’t that sound soothing to your struggling spirit right now?

Never forget that there’s nothing that we can earn from Jesus, but there’s a lot that we can learn from Jesus! If we will just get under His yoke of care, compassion and control, He will teach us how to break the busyness in our life, how to break through the burdens in our life, and He will lead us to all His blessings! After all that’s what our Good Shepherd does!

We start a new series this Sunday called "Burden, Busy or Blessed" and I want us to think about this statement before Sunday, too many times we think God’s blessings are predicated on trying to get God to loves us – that’s religion’s approach and living like that wears us out! You see, God’s blessings are not His re-action towards us, but His action towards us! God does not change us to love us; He loves us so He can change us! That’s incredible!

I’ve learned that religion wants you to sit at its feet and learn its laws, Jesus want you to sit at His feet so you can learn from His love! A religious god is pathetic for your weary soul, but a relational God is empathetic to your weary soul! One of the most powerful realities found in Christianity is the fact that believers are no longer slaves to a religion, but sons and daughters in a relationship!

I really believe that Jesus wants all of His followers to be secure in the fact that we can live the Christian life as long as we are yoked up to Him before the day gets started. For anyone who thinks it’s too hard to be yoked to Him, then let me propose this thinking to close with – with so many people living under the yoke of anger – do you really think that’s an easier yoke? With so many people living under the yoke of addiction – do you really think that’s an easier yoke? With so many people living under the yoke of shame – do you really think that’s an easier yoke? I’ve found that it’s so much easier to live under the yoke of grace!

So this week, if we will look to Jesus, live for Jesus, and learn from Jesus, we’ll find our lives change dramatically! We’ll find the way He walks with us is relaxing, we’ll find the way He talks with us is renewing, we’ll find the way He leads us is refreshing, and we’ll find the way He blesses us is revolutionizing!

God bless you!

Pastor Dave