God's Good Promise

God’s Good Promise

Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest … Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I Am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls … For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30

The Promise is Made

It is critical in studying the Sacred Text that we take the time to explore to whom the message is addressed. There are many occasions where God is speaking to the writer of the Book. In many instances God is referencing the Nation of Israel, His chosen people. There are also individuals that God has spoken to in the Bible where the message only applied to that person. For instance, when God spoke to the parents of Sampson, He gave them specific instructions on raising their Nazarite child. That Scripture applied to only Manoah and his wife. To understand the Text as it should be understood, we must ask to whom the Scripture is addressed; otherwise we would claim a promise that is not actually ours and end up wrongly applying Scripture.

Then of course, there are Scriptures that reveal God’s universal promises that may be claimed by any and at any time. John 3:16 is a classic verse. For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. Those whosoever promises in the Bible were primarily made by Jesus. The promises are clear; compelling, and they are complete.

We have such a timely promise of God before us today. Come unto Me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest … Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I Am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls … For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Although it does not make a reference to whosoever, it is an invitation to all. In this invitation we find some amazing things about God Himself. Here is Jesus, the Son of God, making an endless promise. Who else but God would invite everybody and anybody to partake of something so vast as eternal rest for the soul? Who else but God, could see that the world needed such a promise? Who else but God could have such a vast reservoir of Grace and Goodness and then invite even the worst of sinners to come and find rest? So here is Jesus opening to all the storehouse of Mercy and giving the invitation to anybody to come right on in. What a gift and what a Giver!

Not only is this an inexhaustible promise, it is an expensive promise. This rest is going to cost God. God must give something precious. We should never take it lightly that the freeness of God’s Gift means it is also expensive. Please note also that God the Son is not deferring this promise of rest to an Angel or even to the Sacred Scripture. (God does use both Angels and the Power of Scripture to give peace). Jesus uses the personal pronoun “I” to invite anyone and everyone to come to Him and He will give them rest. Just because the Gift of God is abundant does not mean that it is cheap. As a matter of fact, this is a rare Gift in that God is doing this work personally. God does not leave this work of rest to one of His agents. The care of God’s Children is something that God takes personally. Why? Because God loves doing that. John, the Gospel writer, reminds us of this amazing love and wrote, what great love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God. 1 John 3:1.

Then we must also observe the effectiveness of this promise. When we are burdened with the cares of life, God does not offer a pacifier. When we struggle with heartbreak, loneliness, depression, anxiety, and spiritual exhaustion, God does not always deliver us from the problem. Here God offers deliverance by coming to our side and offering His presence. What a gracious and wonderful God we serve! How effective is this promise? Jesus said, you shall find rest unto your souls. This is rest from our burden. This is rest in our soul. This is rest with our Savior. And here is the wonderful thing. The burden is not eliminated, but “in the yoke with Jesus,” we are elevated above the burden. The word shall is God’s Good Promise that whatever you were carrying is now in God’s Powerful Hands.

The Struggle is Real – But God is Good

Why do I need a burden bearer? Many of us are under the misled assumption that if we do the right things in life, we will never have to suffer from anything? That is lie number one. Some of us think we are too good, too weak, or just too important to suffer. That is lie number two. Then for the rest of us, we feel that we can handle life, so we take on the hero role of protecting ourselves and our families. That is lie number three. Lie number one leads us to believe that good living results in less burdens. Lie number two has some thinking they are too good to suffer and be burdened. While lie number three has others under the impression they can handle the suffering. The reality is that the struggle is real. The suffering is real. The sin is real because people are dying daily.

Let’s be clear about something. Since sin entered the world with the fall of Adam, the world has been messed up. Some would say it is “tore up from the floor up.” Rather than just fix the world, God uses some of the burdens and cares as training opportunities for the Saints of God. Now the training is not designed to get you to the place where you are independently capable but totally dependent on God. In this world where you cannot trust your own strength or understanding, you must learn to trust God. Jesus says, take My yoke upon you and learn of Me. What I have discovered is that if you don’t know Jesus in those burden moments when life presses you down – then you really don’t know Jesus when life is going well. Why? Because you have never trusted Him. If you don’t know Jesus in the valleys of life, I doubt if you will know Him on the mountain tops. Why? Because you have never depended on His Grace to keep you. What needs to happen is that we stop lying to ourselves and admit that we can’t carry the weights of life.

Not only is God using these struggles as training opportunities, God is walking with us through life. Jesus said, Take My Yoke. Growing up on a little farm helped me understand the purpose of a yoke. This device allowed two animals to walk together and also combined their energy to pull the load. My Grandpa would take the wagon and yoke his two mules together to pull the wagon. One of the animals was older and could not “bear the burden” alone, but together the two mules had no problem pulling the wagon. When we walk with God in His yoke, that yoke (notice not the burden) is easy and Jesus burden (not the worldly burden) is light. God uses that walk to build a relationship with us. I don’t know whether you have learned this or not, but the Holy Spirit is constantly revealing truth to us as we journey through life. The Holy Spirit is constantly reminding us to stay on the right path. The Holy Spirit is constantly teaching us the way around the pitfalls in life. We have a relationship with God as we journey through life together with God. Were it not for the struggle, we would shrug off the instructions as “not applying to us.” The struggle reminds you and me how important it is to do things God’s way. The struggle reminds you and me that God did not abandon us by the wayside. The struggle keeps reminding you and me that if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, we would not be here. Yes, the struggle is real – but God is so good.

How Good is the Promise?

By definition, anything good must be from God. Since this promise was made by Jesus and is dependent on Jesus for the fulfilment, it must be good. Right? It is one thing to believe it as a concept and another thing to know the impact of God’s Promise. Every one that has been burdened knows the impact of God’s Promise. For I Am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest unto your souls. Rest means both the peace of God as well as the kindness of God, knowing that God did this. Rest is not about “being left alone from frustration.” This rest is not just about taking a break. This rest is more the ability to “chill out” because God has everything under control. It should be noted that I’m still under Jesus Yoke, but not under the burden. The impact of God’s Promise has so energized life to the point that we worship God because we have arrived at our resting place. Actually the energy we exert is only to the extent that we submit to the Will of God. The Lord is the One doing the heavy lifting. We just keep walking.

The impact of the promise is also noticeable by others. When you and I are lifting burdens, we wear the strain of those burdens. This is the reason why some have worn the years of struggle on their face. You can visibly see that life has worn them down because they have a broken spirit. Why would you let life wear you out when Jesus has given such an awesome invitation? Why carry a burden any further than the Cross? So, we return to Jesus’ opening words – Come to Me all. Failure to come to Jesus means failure for life. May you choose make the right choice today by responding to this amazing Promise from God. It is God’s Good Promise to you.