Have you ever heard somebody say "Give it to God" and not understand how to actually do it? In my 28 years of life I have heard so many people tell me that when I have burdens or issues all I have to do is "Give it to God" and he will take care of all of it. The problem is I don't know how to give it to God. Do I just say "here you go God" and then look towards heaven as my problems and issues are being teleported there for him to deal with? Do I just give it to God and then forget that I even had an issue in the first place? This idea of giving it to God is a little to abstract for me. I need something solid to hold onto. God wouldn't tell me to give him all of my problems and burdens without giving me instructions on how to do it would he?
Ok let's see if we can break this down verse by verse. Mathew 11:28-30 is where I need to be. "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Off of the bat he wants us to come to him. I imagine he wants us to come to him through prayer. "Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." God wants to trade with us. He helps us out, we help him out. We take his yoke and he takes our issues and gives us rest. I think maybe this has been my whole problem. In earlier times I would just tell God my situation and sit back and wait to see what happens. But I need to carry out my end of the bargain. While God is planning on how he is going to attack all of my issues and burdens I need to be working in service for him. This is the key to the whole thing. In exchange for peace of mind and a path that is straight God is asking for us to take his yoke AKA to partner with him in service. But before we get worried about how hard it will be to work for him he makes sure to let us know that working for him is much easier then dealing with the problems that we have in our own lives. Working for him is easy and light. Working for ourselves is burdensome and causes worry. Because we are focused on serving our Lord we are not as focused on ourselves and our human predicaments. We put the spotlight in our lives onto Jesus.
This isn't a fair trade. Because God wants us to be near him he gives us such an amazing deal. He says I'll take care of all of the worry and stress in your life and all you have to do is work for me and by the way working for me isn't close to as hard as working for yourself. How can anyone turn this deal down? Almost everybody in the world has turned his invitation down because they are not interested in what Christ is offering. They're human minds can not comprehend what life would be like if it was lived in service to Jesus. They are living in service to the world. They work harder, worry harder, and stress harder to achieve the world's riches. They also cannot understand how God will deal with their problems. How can God figure this out if we can't? Our minds see a problem and we have two or three ways to deal with it. "Our heavenly Father has a thousand ways to provide for us, of which we know nothing" But our feeble minds cannot comprehend it. And if we can't comprehend it it must not be real.
But before you accept Christ's invitation I must warn you that the happiness and success that comes from this isn't the same happiness and success that the world offers you. The success that Christ offers isn't attached to a million dollars and real estate on the beach. The success that Christ offers isn't a shopping spree to your favorite department store and all of the things that the world's riches offer. The success that Christ offers is not a worldly solution. It is true Joy. And true Joy is the knowledge and closeness to our Father in heaven. "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee: because he trusteth in Thee" Isa 26:3.
Is the reason I am at Christ's service because I want him to take care of my problems? Yes and no. Christ loves me and I know it. I also know that a life lived not about myself is a life that is happier then one that is lived to glorify myself. If we have Christ first, everything else will fall into place. Our lives will be happier because day by day we are getting closer with someone who loves us and cares for us. I am not "working" for Christ to gain his favor or to earn myself into heaven. I am working for him because life is happier when it isn't about you. Life is happier when you aren't worried about yourself but you are more concerned with carrying out his will. Take Christ up in this. Die to yourself and live for him.
This was inspired by Chapter 34 in "The Desire of Ages"
4 comments:
Thanks for these thoughts! Some stuff I hadn't thought about before here.
Good stuff my man.
Nice thoughts Rich. One person in the Bible who has always exemplified this to me is Joseph. That dude had every opportunity to be negative and no one would have blamed him for it. But, despite being put in some of the worst situations possible, he focused his energy on two things: faithfulness to God through obedience and service to others.
Years later, God elevated him to a position unattainable my human standards. But it never would have happened had he not stayed faithful in the first place.
Joseph is an awesome example. Mt. Rubidoux SDA church in Riverside has been doing a series on Joseph and it has been amazing.
What I appreciate about Joseph is that he did all that he did to honor God, not because he wanted the riches and fame that he acquired from honoring God.
We live for ourselves too much. You can only be so happy when you live for yourself. And in the end I believe that it is much more empty. Joseph would have had an amazing life and experience even if God hadn't chosen him to receive all those riches. The closeness he had with God was worth all of it by itself.
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