Are you carrying a heavy burden? Do you wish there was some way to offload your burdens? Do your burdens include worry, anxiety, fear, struggle, frustration, anger, and maybe even hatred? Do you continually compare yourself to others and feel inferior?
We carry many burdens. Some are heavier than others. We may carry some for a short time while carrying others for a long time, maybe even our entire lives. Some of our burdens are learned from others while others come with our experiences or bad decisions.
Jesus states the Father has handed everything over to Him. It sounds like He is being a bit restrictive at first when He says no one knows Him but the Father and no one knows the Father but Him and the ones He chooses. But He follows that up with a wide-open invitation in the following verse. He invites everyone to come to Him and He will give them rest. The One who is in control of everything invites us to come to Him to be relieved of our burdens.
Many people will say they had tried to come to Jesus, and it didn’t work. There is a very simple reason for that. They did not truly turn it over to Jesus. How do I know? I’ve been there done that. I have experienced attempting to turn it over to Jesus again and again and again before I was finally relieved. It was not that Jesus would not take it away. It was me continuing to hold onto it even though I was trying to hand it over to Him. It is like a child who wants to share their toy truck with their little brother but continues to keep their hand on it, too. If we want Jesus to take our burden, we must be willing to let it go.
I pray we all know that Jesus has control over everything. I pray we know that He has invited us to turn our burdens over to Him. I pray each one of us is willing to let go of our burdens and accept the rest Jesus offers. Jesus is in control. Accept Jesus’ invitation. Turn your burdens over to Him. Accept Jesus’ rest.
Matthew 11:27 “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Marty Pressey 