Invest In Matters Eternal Not Temporal
“All who are tired from carrying heavy loads.” Matthew 11:28 NLT.
My thoughts and comments
today are about, “A Life That Matters.”
Doing life God’s way works best. Doing life your way will never satisfy your heart. Jesus promises people the deepest kind of rest. And just how does Jesus accomplish that? He invites the weary to work alongside Him, and with Him. How does labor result in rest?
Jesus’ words seemed to contradict what people had previously experienced. Predominantly, work was manual and often exhausting. Maybe today, or at some other point in your life, you have felt physically exhausted, or emotionally depleted, or spiritually weary. Weariness takes varying forms. When Jesus spoke of effort, labor, and weariness, His listeners knew that He was talking about work.
Their daily lives were agricultural, and their livelihood depended upon the soil and the sea. They ate and bartered with what they could raise or catch. Neither was an easy task; both involved long and tedious hard work. A farmer’s yoke for his oxen or the fisherman’s net were identifiable symbols of strenuous effort and physical weariness. And sometimes after all their best efforts, there still were disappointing results.
Exactly, to whom was Jesus talking? The Bible is clear. Jesus invited, “All who are tired from carrying heavy loads.” Matthew 11:28 NLT. Are you one of those? Heavy loads are not always external. Sometimes they are more internal – unseen by others but not unknown by you. That heavy load could be confusion, emotions, worries, weariness, regrets, disappointment, mistakes, or uncertainties that can all weigh on your mind, weaken your hope, and weary your body and soul.
Do you identify with any of those? You work harder and longer but seem to have less evidence of success and satisfaction. Jesus’ invitation to the weary and to you and me is this: “Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls . . My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Read Matthew 11:28 30 NLT. You may have thought you knew how to make life work on your own terms. But the labor, with its accumulating concern and tiredness, finally catches up with you. That’s when Jesus says, “Let Me teach you.”
Here are three simple things Jesus will teach you.
(1) Do what pleases God. Anything else is extraneous and less important. Jesus lived without anxiety, uncertainty, frustration, or failure. Learn from His example:Jesus prioritized obedience above all else. “I always do what pleases the Father.” John 8:29 NIV. That is bedrock upon which to build an abounding life.
Serving God without learning what pleases Him is needlessly exhausting and fruitlessly ineffective. The Bible is clear. “Live a life worthy of the Lord, please Him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, and growing in the knowledge of God.” Read Colossians 1:9-12 NIV.
(2) Do what God is doing. “Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and tells Him everything He is doing . . the very work that the Father has given Me to finish . . I am doing.”John 5:19-20/36 NLT/NIV. Life is best when you invest yourself in things eternal, rather than wasted on what is only temporal.
(3) Do everything at God’s direction and with His anointing. “The Son can do nothing by Himself. He does only what He sees the Father doing.” John 5:19 NLT. Why live your life without including a great God? Nothing could be worse than coming to the end of your life and stand before a loving God with regret that so many years were wasted that could have been better invested in matters eternal.
Why squander a precious life too busy about things temporal but not eternal? Jesus gives His invitation to life, abundant now and eternal forever. Now, He awaits your initiative to obey.
Today, I pray for you to find assurance and contentment in life.
Christian Communications 2019
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