Hey everyone.
As I have continued my study of Matthew, I spent a couple of days looking at Matthew 11:28-30. Jesus says there, "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." Now I have read that passage many times but this I got more from than I ever had before. Maybe because this time I was both weary and burdened. I like it that Jesus provides rest. It is not necessarily physical rest, I am still physically tired, but a spiritual rest. I am not carrying the same burden that I had been, because I was able to entrust that burden to Him.
But what I really want to focus on is how Jesus is really extending to me an invitation to come and learn from Him. He is offering to teach me gentleness and humility. These are things that I need. It reminds of Philippians 2:5-11, where Paul writes that Jesus was humble to the point of making himself nothing, and that we are to imitate Him in our relationships. I find this very challenging personally. My instinct is to make myself something. I love to be recognized. I crave it sometimes. I need to learn humility from Jesus. In the past, I have been praised for my patience with my students. I would be patient and gentle with them then go home and blow up at the people in the world that needed my love and patience most. I need to learn gentleness and humility from Jesus. So I am looking at Jesus, but I am also looking at myself to see where I came better "make myself nothing," to be a better husband, father and person. And as I strive to become more like Him perhaps I can have a bit more of that soul rest.
Tom
