A favorite song of mine these days has the following refrain.
Come all who are weary
Come all who are broken hearted
Oh come now to Jesus
Come and lay your burdens down.
“He Reigns, –GhostShip
This refrain resonates so deeply with me, because it points us to a source of peace and rest that we all need, whether we are weary now or will be later. Our hearts have been, are presently, and/or will be broken in the future.
And what we need is a friend. And when He says “come, take a load off,” can actually help us unload our burdens. One of the great truths of the gospel is that Jesus bears “away” our sin. Along with the penalty of sin, Jesus also bears its burden. Shame is cast away. Fruitless toil for acceptance by God is gone.
Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection we are accepted as sons and daughters by our Heavenly Father. We find ourselves empowered by the Holy Spirit to walk in strength, even though we may be experiencing weariness. Broken hearts can be healed and kept soft, that we might love again.
Oh, my friend, if you find yourself overcome with grief, then let me point you to THE GOD OF ALL COMFORT! Jesus knows deeply and intimately the ache of every tear that fills the eye. Yet, He says, “come to me.” When God promises comfort for the weary, it is not through the waving of magic wands or the snapping of fingers, but through faith. Yes, faith. Trust. Belief.
Do you believe God, when He says that your suffering and hurting is purposeful? Do you trust Jesus to provide the strength and comfort that you need? Will you remain faithful to God in deed and heart? My friend, Jesus is not just an ancient Jewish carpenter who drummed up a public following because He could relate with the plight of His kinsman and thus spoke words of hope. No, Jesus is THE HOPE, the great King of Heaven who reigns supreme over all. He is THE creator of all that is seen and unseen.
He fashioned our emotions and our psyche. He knows our hearts. And this is precisely how he knows what we need in difficult times. But Jesus doesn’t simply know in some theoretical, disconnected way. Jesus Himself left heaven to come and live the human experience as a man. He experienced true hunger, exhaustion, joy, excitement, sadness, joy, disappointment, and fulfillment as a human.
The only part of the human experience He did not taste was the taste of sin. He did everything perfectly: no bad words, bad attitude, or bad thoughts. Beloved, if you leave this devotion with one thought, know that Jesus has identified with our humanity in all its sufferings, so that we might identify with His perfections. There’s a day coming when we will never be weary or broken-hearted again, because the very presence of sin and its effects upon the world will be annihilated. But in the meantime, Jesus says “Come to me, today.” Jesus gives the peace and rest of heaven today, by faith. So I end where I began:
Come all who are weary
Come all who are broken hearted
Oh come now to Jesus
Come and lay your burdens down.
Yours in Christ,
Chaplain James Chavis