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Posted March 13, 2017 by Charlie Van Dyke in Town Square
By Rev. Nathan Buchanan
I find myself these days running from one thing in my life to the next.
Looking back to last year, I feel like since Thanksgiving, it has been nonstop. For me and my family, we had a great time visiting with family over the Thanksgiving holidays, and then before we knew it, it was Christmas. Then in January we started our 13th season of Upward Basketball. The season was fantastic. Several churches came together to make Christ known through the game of basketball. The Upward season ended last Sunday, but life keeps on moving. Busyness is the norm for many of today’s families. With busyness, comes the need for rest.
Many would agree that rest is needed, but is rest possible with the demands placed upon you in life? Demands from your job, family, yourself and other people, places, and things, along the journey really do make it difficult to find rest. I was talking with a busy mother just a couple of weeks ago about trying to find time to exercise. To find even a few minutes for exercise seemed impossible to this mother. She was waking up early to get her children ready for school and herself ready for her day. By the time they all made it home from their daily and evening activities, it was time to go to bed and do it all over again the next day. How do we find rest in our busy world?
Jesus in Matt. 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
In the day of Jesus and in our day, there are many who are weary from heavy struggling or from work. The work of the day has been difficult. It has also been “heavy-laden” or, in other words, burdensome because of the load one carries. It is under this pressure and weight that we live, but it does not have to be.
Rest or refreshment is available. There is time available to regain one’s strength. But in order for this to happen, we must be willing to as Jesus tells us “take His yoke” upon us. “Take my yoke” is a metaphor for the discipline of discipleship. It means that we are to learn from Jesus how to live this life that He has given us. We are to learn from the revelation that Jesus alone imparts.
As we learn from Christ, we learn how to say “yes” to the things that really matter in our lives and in our family life and how to say “no” to the things that don’t. The rest for our souls that we all desire and need are preserved only by daily renewal in fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself. Many Christians backslide because this truth is not lived out. When it comes down to it, they strive to do their best to fight against sin and serve God, yet they do so with no strength. They are without strength because they are trying to do it on their own strength.
It is only when we draw near to God on a daily basis that we can gain the strength needed to find rest in a busy world. Psalm 63:1: “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
In your busy world find rest today in the One who gives rest.
Rev. Nathan Buchanan is pastor of First Baptist Church of Mineral Wells
I find myself these days running from one thing in my life to the next.
Looking back to last year, I feel like since Thanksgiving, it has been nonstop. For me and my family, we had a great time visiting with family over the Thanksgiving holidays, and then before we knew it, it was Christmas. Then in January we started our 13th season of Upward Basketball. The season was fantastic. Several churches came together to make Christ known through the game of basketball. The Upward season ended last Sunday, but life keeps on moving. Busyness is the norm for many of today’s families. With busyness, comes the need for rest.
Many would agree that rest is needed, but is rest possible with the demands placed upon you in life? Demands from your job, family, yourself and other people, places, and things, along the journey really do make it difficult to find rest. I was talking with a busy mother just a couple of weeks ago about trying to find time to exercise. To find even a few minutes for exercise seemed impossible to this mother. She was waking up early to get her children ready for school and herself ready for her day. By the time they all made it home from their daily and evening activities, it was time to go to bed and do it all over again the next day. How do we find rest in our busy world?
Jesus in Matt. 11:28 says, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
In the day of Jesus and in our day, there are many who are weary from heavy struggling or from work. The work of the day has been difficult. It has also been “heavy-laden” or, in other words, burdensome because of the load one carries. It is under this pressure and weight that we live, but it does not have to be.
Rest or refreshment is available. There is time available to regain one’s strength. But in order for this to happen, we must be willing to as Jesus tells us “take His yoke” upon us. “Take my yoke” is a metaphor for the discipline of discipleship. It means that we are to learn from Jesus how to live this life that He has given us. We are to learn from the revelation that Jesus alone imparts.
As we learn from Christ, we learn how to say “yes” to the things that really matter in our lives and in our family life and how to say “no” to the things that don’t. The rest for our souls that we all desire and need are preserved only by daily renewal in fellowship with Jesus Christ Himself. Many Christians backslide because this truth is not lived out. When it comes down to it, they strive to do their best to fight against sin and serve God, yet they do so with no strength. They are without strength because they are trying to do it on their own strength.
It is only when we draw near to God on a daily basis that we can gain the strength needed to find rest in a busy world. Psalm 63:1: “O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
In your busy world find rest today in the One who gives rest.
Rev. Nathan Buchanan is pastor of First Baptist Church of Mineral Wells
English (US) 