Matt 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” NIV
One day this week the Lord approached me and asked, “Do you know why you have problems sleeping at night?”
I replied: “I’m not sure. Maybe I’m getting old.”
“Think again”, He replied. “You are trying to carry your load of problems by yourself!”
“But before going to bed I hand you over all my problems.”
“You need to do more than that. Not by words only, but by deeds.”
It’s then that I realized that what was keeping me awake in the middle of the night had nothing to do with my age. It had to do with my attitude towards God! When I wake up in the night to answer nature’s call, thoughts constantly bombard me: “Don’t forget you need to do this tomorrow….How will you solve that upcoming problem?…How will you reach out to that person?…” And in my sleepy state of mind I let those thoughts dwell in me until I am fully awake, worrying about my own problems!
“But Lord, what should I do? How do I hand you over all my problems and let you be the guide of my life?”
“Very simply, renounce these thoughts in the name of Jesus and announce boldly that those have been handed over to Jesus. It is His problems now, not your own.”
Wow! Thank you Jesus!
I applied what God told me, and my friend, it works! Hallelujah! It is easier to not worry as much when I am awake, but when I am sleepy my true nature is revealed: I am a worrier and I wasn’t even aware of it! Worrying is trying to solve my problems by myself, worry is trying to be in control of everything. But worries never get smaller. Instead, they multiply! Until one day you discover that you were never in control of any situation! Dwelling on worries causes them, eventually, to overtake us.
What is the solution?
Jesus is! Here is what He said to all of us, worriers: Matt 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” NIV
Rest is only possible if we hand over all of our problems, all of our worries, all of our burdens to Jesus, not only in words, but also in deeds. Handing over our worries to Jesus means not dwelling on them any longer and boldly announcing that these problems are now in the hands of Jesus. Handing over our worries to Jesus means trusting Jesus to solve them — 100%! Handing our worries over to Jesus is confessing that He is faithful and He will always come through for us.
The results? Christ “will give us rest”. We will be able to sleep through our worst troubles, because we will know who is at the helm of our life. We will be able to be at peace even during daytime.
If God is our guide, then why worry?
Jesus encourages us to take His yoke and to learn from Him. Why? A yoke was used to tie two animals (generally cows or horses) together for the purpose of doing heavy toil. A yoke had two bows, one for each animal. Jesus’ invitation is inferring that He will do all the pulling. He will take the lead in our life. He will be pulling all of our burdens. All we have to do is follow Him and learn from Him. Only then will we find rest for our souls.
Isn’t Jesus awesome!
Would you like to experience that promised rest? Then stop worrying. Instead, hand over all of your worries to Jesus. Enjoy your good night of sleep!
In His love,
Rob Chaffart
Answers2Prayer Ministries, www.Answers2Prayer.org ]]>
(To access the entire “Empty-Handed Leads to Fullness From God” mini-series, please click here.)