Empty-Handed Implies Empty-Headed
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 Rob Chaffart
Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org
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,