A scripture, a story, an observation and a prayer based on Matthew 11:28 and the ideal of real rest

SCRIPTURE: Matthew 11:28 (The Message)
"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest.”

STORY: by C. F. Andrews, “Christ in the Silence”
“The story is told of Hugh Macmillan in ‘The Daisies of Nazareth” of a highland shepherd on a lonely moor who had been infirmed for many years and blind. He was so crippled with rheumatism that he could not stir from his seat beside his lowly peat fire. As he was sitting thus one day, a kindly visitor asked him whether the hours, which he spent in this manner, were not weary, and spoke of the blessedness of heaven. The old shepherd answered simply; ‘I know it well; I have been in heaven during the last ten years.’ He went on to explain to his visitor that since Jesus had entered his heart town years before and had made his abode there, he had not felt the weariness as he had before.”

OBSERVATION:
All of us have something that we could complain about, unless by chance you are being blessed with the perfect life – perfect spouse, perfect children, perfect grandchildren, perfect job, perfect boss, perfect house, perfect neighbors, perfect health, perfect parents, perfect in-laws … well, you get the picture.

Many of us probably know someone who dwells on their problems, their aches and pains, their lost chances and opportunities, etc.

Regardless of the degree of discomfort in a person’s life the promise of Christ is that we don’t have to set housekeeping there! We need not dwell on what is wrong or what we wish would/should be better.

Rather, in an attitude of surrender we turn it all over to him and discover real rest. As a dear soul shared at the beginning of worship, “I’m just turning it over to the Lord and I hope that THIS TIME I don’t snatch a part of it back as I leave the altar.” We do, do that, don’t we … we just snatch it back a little.

The real question is do we really, really desire to be made whole? Or, is it more comfortable living the life that we know instead of the life that we don’t know?

PRAYER:
Dear Great Physician, you know us better than we know ourselves. You know the hindrances and roadblocks that we place between real rest and ourselves. Our desire is for wholeness and yet, it frightens us to even think about it. Helps us to move from where we are to where you want us to be. In the name of the healer himself, Jesus Christ, we place this petition before you. Amen.