Exodus 36-38

Matthew 23:1-22

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened…” 
—Matthew 11:28


The opening verse of this devotion is an invitation from Jesus to come to Him. It is interesting when we study the original Greek and how this sentence is structured. The literal translation of the verse is, “Come to Me, those who have overburdened themselves.” In other words, Jesus is calling those who are wearied by their own choices.

Many of us can relate to being weary of life in a broken world and burdened by the worries of life. When we turn on the news, we hear about global conflicts, refugee crises and political strife, which can make us grow tired of the realities of life. We have all developed our own pathologies to try and escape the painful reminder of everyday life and the difficulty of it. Some binge watch shows, others eat their emotions and others give themselves into addictions. Jesus’s invitation is to call all of us out of hurting ourselves. His promise to those who go to Him is that they will find rest.

But even good things can become burdens to us. A pastor shared a story about the time his church did a capital campaign. They were trying to raise money to expand their footprint in the region and plant more churches. On the Saturday before “Giving Sunday,” he was feeling the strain and the burden. At that moment, while he was wrestling with God, his seven-year-old daughter came jaunting into the room. She was all smiles and happy saying, “Hi Daddy!” The pastor responded, “I don’t have time for you right now. I’m feeling really stressed. Daddy’s got to pray. Can you just leave me alone?” She looked at him with this origami contraption in her hand, where someone would say a number and the person with the origami would count it out while moving the origami paper. The daughter went, “Say a number, Daddy, please.” He replied, “I don’t have time for this. Uh, five.” The daughter counted, “One, two, three, four, five. Say another number, Daddy.” The pastor answered, “Come on! I got to get in the right head space. Fine, 20.” The daughter counted to 20, opened the piece of paper and read to her dad, “‘So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand’ (Isaiah 41:10). Okay. Bye, Daddy!” The daughter ran out of the room and at this point, the pastor completely fell apart and started to weep.

Jesus’s invitation to all of us that are overburdened—sometimes even with good things—is to come to Him and find rest. Will we respond to His invitation?

Dear Jesus, I admit that I am weary of life in a broken world and burdened by the worries of life. Thank You for inviting me to come to You and find rest.


Older Post Newer Post