Inspiration comes at all hours of the day or night, from many different triggers. I went to bed and read a book which featured the verse on which this devotional thought is based. After finishing the book and turning out the light, I found these thoughts running through my mind, and got up and wrote them down.

Matthew 11:28 – Come to me, all you who are wearied and burdened, and I will give you rest. (NIV)

Rest sounds wonderful, doesn't it? No one likes being wearied and burdened, but we are — burdened with worry, burdened with guilt, burdened with illness, burdened with responsibility. We all know about being burdened, and burdens are like packages — big packages that are often more than we can handle — packages that trying to carry makes us weary, tired, and lacking energy. We all know what that is like: being too tired to make a meal, to go to a meeting, or to go out to visit someone. It seems to me that the longer I live, the more there is to do. You'd think that it should be possible to cross things off a list and not have something else move in to take its place!

But there are so many of us who like our feelings of weariness and being burdened — aren't there? They can be an excuse to hibernate, or to stop working with a group, or to quit a committee. "No, I don't think that I will go out today; they can get along without me."

You know, it is so easy to concentrate on the description of the first "you" in today's passage, and to forget Jesus' "me" and "I". But in this passage, which is addressed to all of us, Christ is speaking to each one of us directly: "Come to me and I will give …"

Action is needed on our part: we can be weary, and we can be burdened, but that is not to stop us from making the first move: to come to Him. And if we do, what do we get? We get the gift of rest. Do we … do you … do I … have enough trust that we will go to the One Who spoke these words and accept His gift? Or do we go to Christ, take His gift, and keep right on being weary and burdened, because we don't want to leave it all up to Him? I pray that you do better than I when it comes to accepting God's gift of rest.

Prayer: We come, Lord, with our weariness and burdens. Help us to leave them with You and to accept the gift You offer: rest. Help us to relax and enjoy our lives and not be off in our minds at the next item on our agenda. Thank You for time spent with friends. Thank You for that gift of rest. Amen.

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About the author:

Ruth Burkholder <ruth.burk@sympatico.ca>
Stouffville, Ontario, Canada
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