Devotionals
It is Thursday night, the end of the week and I am tired! As a wife, mother, friend, sister, aunt and niece-by the end of the week I am worn out. And I know that I am not alone. All across the world, women just like me are looking forward to the weekend. I am looking forward to getting some much needed rest.
hmmm. thinking about that word. Rest.
Jesus says in Matthew 11: 28 : "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."
There's that word again---REST. R - E- S - T
As a busy woman ---that word really catches my attention!
What does the word really mean?
The definition I like best is "to cease from labor."
Wow! I need to cease from labor. Not physical labor, though. I need to cease from emotional labor.
I want to cease from the labor of trying to please people. I want to cease from the labor of trying to be every woman to every body. I want to cease from the labor of being controlled by the opinions of other people. I want to cease from the labor of letting other people use me as a dumping ground for all of the toxic thinking and poisonous living. I am tired and I want to cease from labor. I would love to rest!
Tbere is an account of a woman in the Gospel of John, chapter 4, verses 6-29, who also needed rest.
In a few verses, with just a few words, we see this woman go from being burdened and weary and laboring to finding true rest--the kind of rest that only Jesus can give.
In verse 16, Jesus tells this woman to go and get her husband. And with just these few spoken words, a transformation begins. This woman , who has been held prisoner by shame, and burdened by the opinions of the people in her hometown, is suddenly set free. She has had an encounter with Jesus that has has forever changed her life. Her labor has ceased. She has found rest.
After many years of being burdened and laboring for the love of people, she finally found the rest that her soul was seeking when she met Jesus.
She rested from her labor of looking for love in all the wrong places.
She rested from her labor of being a woman in a society where women had little or no value.
She rested from the opinions of the people in her hometown.
She rested from the labor of the assumptions of judgemental people.
She rested from the labor of living under the scrutiny of men and women who did not want to know why she did what she did.
She rested from the labor of the whispers from the women and the catcalls from the men.
She met Jesus and he gave her rest.
I too, have had an encounter with Jesus.
And I rest in his love. I thank God every day for the rest I have in him.
I have decided that if your opinion of me is less than what The Most High God says about me, I choose to believe His opinion. I am no longer a victim of circumstance---but I have decided to be the victor in every circumstance.
I have freedom in Christ. I rest in His love.
Jesus said, " Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest."
Indeed.
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