Are you tired? Do you feel like you are carrying weights that are too heavy for you? Does each step you take feel like your legs are lead? If so, pause a moment, take a breath and snuggle into God. He is your Heavenly Father and He desires to lift your burdens, comfort you and give you strength. But, you need to make the choice to go to Him as it is only in Him where you will experience true rest and true refreshment. In Him, you will experience a lightening of your load and be renewed so you may continue to walk in this world.

Jesus knew this world was full of trouble. He walked in this world for 33 years experiencing all sorts of trouble. People He loved judged Him unfairly – including His family. People He loved betrayed and denied Him. People He loved asked that He suffer a horrible death. People He loved died…but with Him they were brought back to life. So Jesus, in all His godly wisdom beckons us with these Words:

“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.” Matthew 11:28-29

Jesus knows what it is like to walk in this world. We don’t have a God that is removed from us, watching from on high that hasn’t experienced strife and loss. Rather we have a God that has been there-done that. He has walked this world with all sorts of loss and trials and He knows the only way to rise above it is in God. Thus, He gives us this wonderful direction – “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

In Him, we can find rest. In Him, we can find comfort. In Him, we find gentleness and humbleness. As we share our journeys with Him, our load is lightened. In this verse it says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” From my bible commentaries it says that this “yoking” is a joining together of two animals to work as one.  This is a metaphor for joining your life with Jesus. When you choose to join your life with His, He shares the load with you. As you spend time near Him, you learn His ways and the work appears lighter. This doesn’t say – “Toss all your work on me and then you can sit back and do nothing” but it says, toss your cares on me, focus on me and I will help carry the load. Just like this verse says:

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. I Peter 5:7

Jesus cares for you and your burdens will be lifted when you come to Him. That doesn’t mean they go away, it means they will be easier to carry. The burdens you carry will now be shared via yoke with God and His strength and your shoulders will sag a bit less.

The piece of this puzzle that makes it all work is that you MUST go to Him. God is always with you, Jesus is always intercessing for you, Holy Spirit lives inside you. But, if you ignore them and focus only on your troubles you lose their influence on your life. You lose their lightening of your load and the weight of your troubles can seem double.

So, make the choice to snuggle into God. Take time to sit in silence in His presence. Imagine yourself sitting next to Him, leaning into His chest and just feeling His breath on your cheek. Moments of complete stillness allow God to work in you in amazing ways. You don’t have to have the magic words to pray. You don’t have to have the entire bible memorized. All you need to do is draw near to Him. Snuggle into the God of all creation, He is patiently waiting for you.

Enjoy your snuggle with Love and Blessings,

Pamela