Matthew 11:28

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

They weary themselves to commit iniquity.—I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.—Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

My heart needs Thee, O Lord, my heart needs Thee! No part of my being needs Thee like my heart. All else within me can be filled by Thy gifts. My hunger can be satisfied by daily bread. My thirst can be allayed by earthly waters. My cold can be removed by household fires. My weariness can be relieved by outward rest. But no outward thing can make my heart pure.

The calmest day will not calm my passions. The fairest scene will not beautify my soul. The richest music will not make harmony within. The breezes can cleanse the air, but no breeze can cleanse a spirit. This world has not provided for my heart. It has provided for my eye; it has provided for my ear; it has provided for my touch; it has provided for my taste; it has provided for my sense of beauty, but it has not provided for my heart.

The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.—Rest in the Lord .—He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.

Is it not humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things we will not come to Jesus Christ about.

If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words - "Come unto Me." In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness - "Just as I am."

We who are saved find rest in Jesus. Those who are not saved will receive rest if they come to Him, for here He promises to "give" it. Nothing can be freer than a gift; let us gladly accept what He gladly gives. You are not to buy it, nor to borrow it, but to receive it as a gift. You labor under the lash of ambition, covetousness, lust, or anxiety: He will set you free from this iron bondage and give you rest.

You are "laden," yes, "heavy laden" with sin, fear, care, remorse, fear of death; but if you come to Him He will unload you. He carried the crushing mass of our sin that we might no longer carry it. He made Himself the great Burden-bearer, that every laden one might cease from bowing down under the enormous pressure.

I wonder why the easiest thing in the Christian life is the most difficult? I wonder why I work by a guttering candle when there is an electric light switch within easy reach of my hand? The answer, of course, is that I don’t.

I am not so foolish—except in one direction, and that is Godward. In our spiritual life many of us seem to be content struggling along with all the poor primitive resources of a weak, human nature, while all the infinite power of the Godhead is at our disposal. There is no condition of human nature, no circumstance of human life, that is not completely provided for in the all-embracing love of our Father God; yet the vast majority of His children struggle along life’s road, bearing burdens that He is eager to carry, and has urged them to entrust to Him. I wonder why?

Where the sin and the sorrow cease, and the song and the saint commence. "Come unto Me." Matthew 11:28

Do I want to get there? I can now. The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words - "Come unto Me." Not - Do this, or don't do that; but - "Come unto Me." If I will come to Jesus my actual life will be brought into accordance with my real desires; I will actually cease from sin, and actually find the song of the Lord begin.

God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone.

Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of the life in God, and self-consciousness continually produces wrestling.

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest.

Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer.

We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do.

"Why does not God reveal Himself to me?" He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won't abandon absolutely to Him.

There remaineth . . . a rest to the people of God.—My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.—There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.—They . . . rest from their labours.

The forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died.—A wounded spirit who can bear?

Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?—The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.—Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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.