Rest for the Weary

Prayer Practice

Cup Prayer – This prayer will help you pour your heart out to God (Ps. 62:8). Begin with your hands folded together like an upside-down cup. Pour out before God all your fears, anxieties, guilt, sin and shame. Tell Him what troubles you. Take time to be specific. When you feel like you’ve poured out your heart, flip your hands over, folding them like an open cup, ready to receive from God. Sit in silence, asking God simply to fill you with His Spirit. If your mind runs back to sin, shame, anxiety or concerns of the day, flip your hands back over and pour it out to the Lord. When you are finished praying, read today’s Scripture and listen as God shares His heart back with you.

 

DAILY READING

Matthew 11:28-30

REFLECTION

What Burdens You?

by Mary McGinnis

We all have burdens.  

Search your heart right now. What is causing you stress in your life right now? What is weighing heavily on your mind and in your heart and dragging you down? What is keeping you awake at night? What burdens are you carrying?

Jesus is speaking to YOU today. He is saying COME to ME! His invitation is to those who are weary, tired, exhausted, feeling the crushing weight of the burdens of their day-to-day existence. 

Why come to Him? Why heed His invitation? He promises to give you REST. He says, “I give you permission to stop your constant striving. You can rest.” 

But wait.  He is asking us to take His yoke upon our shoulders instead.  How does He expect us to rest if we are taking up yet another burden? 

When Jesus used the words “take” He was saying, rise from the ground.  He is asking us to lift our heads above the burdens that are anchoring down our souls and prepare to set sail. 

Do you suppose that Jesus really needs our help?  He is big enough, wise enough, strong enough, forward thinking enough to know exactly what this world needs and how He will save it?  And what about your life?  Is anything that has happened, is happening, or will happen to you going to be a surprise to Him? 

He chooses to call us to yoke up with Him, the Master and Ruler of the Universe.  

The All Knowing, All Powerful, Supreme One invites us to learn from Him.  He gently teaches us.  He stooped down low, became one of us, so we could witness what His humble heart looked like as He walked in our world. 

He took up the burden of our sin on the cross.  He was weighed down with all the wrong doings, all the injustices, all the corruption of humanity, and He felt the pain of His Father turning away, and He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” 

With that crushing weight borne and defeated, His invitation to us to be yoked to Him offers a rest like we have never know.  It is a kind of a rest that reaches the inner most essence of our being, our very souls.  Not even death itself can dissolve it.

Taking up His yoke is not like the toilsome labor of this world.  His yoke is easy, filled with life giving purpose.  His burden is light for us because it is His burden.   You see God has a burden too.   His heart is breaking, and He is working in the harvest fields daily, burdened with His unquenchable love for humankind. 

Lord, let me learn from You as You gently lead me.  You have humbly lifted the burden of my sin sick heart. You long to reach those who are still weighted down and burdened, still wandering alone.  May I eagerly come take Your yoke up and get ready to set sail into Your harvest field, with the power of Your Holy Spirit.  Lord, break our hearts for what breaks Yours!