Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from April 18, “Rest Assured”
If I had to answer in a word how I have felt the last few years, it might be “tired.” I don’t think I’m alone. We all have demands made on us. We have responsibilities, families to care for, work to do, commitments to keep, and circumstances in our lives that just sap our energy, both physically and emotionally. We don’t get enough rest. I don’t just mean we don’t get adequate sleep, though that is often the case. I’m not referring to periods of relaxation, though that too is important. What we need is rest for our souls.
We can actually be very busy and still have rest. The key is in our relationship with Jesus. When we are working together with Him, He tells us, “My yoke is comfortable, and My burden is light.” Most of us could fill a book with the things we’ve been told we should be doing. Many of them are good things, but we can get so weighed down by the impossibility of doing it all that we become discouraged. We imagine that it all depends on us, so we strive to make it happen. If asked, we’ll say all the right things, but our lives send a different message.
Jesus still calls to us today, “Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Are we listening, or are we still off trying to keep our own set of laws and that under our own power. It’ll never work, and we weren’t meant to function that way. We’ll become tired, warn out, and wounded. Let us instead learn to walk with Him, and then we will find the rest we so desperately need. Our text is Matthew 11:25-30.
