Thoughts - Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
- Matthew 11:28

The Christian life, as commonly understood, can be an extremely busy one. The business of saving souls demands a lot of giving by a lot of people. Even in the Bible, the working, giving nature of the Faith is repeatedly stressed, leading to innumerable discussions of spiritual gifts, methods of evangelism, varieties of social ministry, whole laundry lists of church activities, and so on, and so on, and so on. It leads to a lot of exciting work, and even more exciting results. It also leads to incredible fatigue.

Which is why a lesson that I learned myself only a couple weeks ago continues to stick out so prominently in my mind. I've been very busy lately doing God's work, both in direct ministry and in getting things together to continue following His calling on my life. It's all good stuff, but, after one particularly eventful weekend, I was completely exhausted.

My automatic response to this, being a good Christian, was to pray. And God answered, by providing for me an extremely refreshing nap. As I woke up later, He reminded me of the main verse for today.

OK, I realize that it wasn't the most exciting story. Even so, remarkably, the experience has significantly modified my view of the Christian life, by showing me a couple truths I had missed. Or possibly ignored.

First, for all of our “doing”, Christ's goal was to give us rest, not burden us with work. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) - sounds more like joy than toil. The old system of the law gave us an unbearable burden, and the Jews literally worked themselves into exhaustion attempting to pull it. Christ alone could pull the load, and He invited us (Matthew 11:29-30) to come along with Him, so He could pull it instead of us.

Second, even more basically, Christ's goal was to give. It's true that “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) But realize that, with God, there's very little we can give. Beyond that, if no one receives, then giving comes to a halt. To the audience Jesus was addressing, the problem was in getting people to give. In the Church today, far too often, the opposite issue rears its head: we get so caught in giving that we refuse to receive, even from God.

Now, this in no way reduces the commands of Scripture or the demands of life with God and in the Church. There are a lot of things we are to do, and those are good things. The problem is, we get focused on the to-do lists, and forget about both God and ourselves. God's first concern is for His children – He loves us and wants to take care of us. And, honestly, we need His care. Only when we'll allow Him that access will we have what it takes to minister to others.

Put another way: the point of the Christian life is the two-way relationship with God. Commune with Him and receive from Him, and you can do great things through Him. Concentrate on the “stuff”, however sanctified, and you'll be hopelessly drained.

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”
- Philippians 4:19