"Then Jesus said, 'Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.'" Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT)
As I observe what I am seeing on the news each evening, I become more and more unsettled. The happenings in our nation of late, and the analysis of where it could all be heading, are things I never thought I would see or hear in my lifetime. So many people are in pain and some are causing pain for others. Many are simply taking advantage of the situation at hand and using it to gratify their own fleshly desires to show hatred and cause destruction. But whatever their reasoning, even those of us who are far away from the protesting and rioting are experiencing stress and fear over things we find difficult to understand.
Meanwhile, in our own personal lives, the battles that we face each day still exist. Illness, death, job loss, financial struggles, family issues and the like continue to need our attention. It seems that there is nowhere to go to find peace. If you are like me then you find yourself before the Lord telling Him that it is all too much. One day a week ago, while weeping and praying, I said to the Father, "Please tell me that things won't be so hard in Heaven." Maybe you have prayed those words too. Some days, my only desire is for Jesus to appear before me, wrap me in His holy arms, and just hold me.
Praise God that we have Him to turn to! Not only is He with us each second of each day of our lives, but we have the hope and promise of being with Him eternally once our lives on this earth are done. We have His Word, His love letter, to hide in our hearts so that we can be constantly reminded of all He has done for us and that we are not alone. Our problems, our burdens, are too heavy to carry on our own, but we have the privilege and knowledge of knowing that He is aware of all that is happening and He is walking with us and helping us as we are on our journey through life. His power is endless and is greater than any threat or difficulty we may have to face.
I had a wonderful dream a few nights ago. I want to share it with you because I found great comfort in it and I think it might be encouraging. When my father and his siblings were all still living, they would try to get together at his sister's house about once a year. In the dream, that was happening. I walked into her home and saw my aunt and uncle, my mother and father and several people that I did not recognize but knew they were relatives. For some reason, I had to leave the room and when I returned, another aunt, my mother's sister was there as well. Now, I have missed this sweet woman tremendously so when I saw her in the dream, I started sobbing. She stood, wrapped her arms around me tightly and we just hugged while I cried. I believe this was the way Jesus chose to hug me because of all that I have been feeling lately. While I would have loved to dream of Him hugging me Himself, when I awoke, I knew it was a gift from Him. It was that real.
I know how alone it is possible to feel. I know how deeply lonely we can be. Especially with the time of quarantine when we have been separated from friends and loved ones, many of us have found ourselves dealing with these emotions while continuing to have to muddle through whatever other hardships we contend with. I chose today's verse because I wanted to remind each of us that we have not been asked to carry heavy loads alone. Jesus is right beside us at all times. He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. We can turn to Him at any moment and know that He sees us, He hears us and, most of all, He loves us unconditionally.
None of knows what will happen tomorrow. Maybe the situations we find ourselves in, or all that is happening is this world, will just get better and disappear. Maybe it will be the opposite. What needs to stay uppermost in our minds is that we know that nothing will ever happen that our Father isn't aware of. In fact, He knew before He placed the stars in the sky everything that we would ever encounter and He knows how it will all work out. Because of that, we know to stay close to Him and let Him lead.
Today, and everyday, let's encourage and love one another. If we are struggling then there is a good chance those around us are as well. We can be the ones to remind them of the promises we know to be true and to provide the loving arms that are so needed. May we all go forth in His name. God bless.
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