Scripture:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." - Matthew 11:28

Because of the curse, life is work. Work makes us tired, weary and sometimes discouraged. When we are tired and weary we experience many other negative feelings and emotions. During these seasons we often yearn to be refreshed and encouraged.

Jesus tells us the secret for finding this refreshing. He said to come to Him. Come to Jesus when you are weak, weary, heavy laden, troubled, disgruntled, discouraged, disheartened, disillusioned, exhausted and frustrated. All these negative responses can easily be the by-products of uncompensated labor.

There are times in life, however, when we find our labor is rewarding and nourishing. Nevertheless, this is not the labor Jesus was speaking about. When our labor is adequately compensated, the load doesn’t seem so heavy. It has been said that when you’re winning nothing hurts. What Jesus was addressing here was not the occasions when labor was adequately compensated, but when it was not. It is quite normal to have the feeling of being overburdened (heavy laden) when your labor seems to be uncompensated.

Jesus said that in times like these, "come to me". How different that is from the way we normally think. In difficult times we often anticipate the Lord coming to our rescue. But Jesus says that we are to come to Him. This runs cross grain to what we usually envision. We imagine that since the Lord is full of mercy, he should come to us and give us rest and eliminate our suffering. We have the concept of this verse backwards. What we are actually thinking is this. Come unto me, Jesus, and give me rest.

Are you tired today? Tired of toil without reward? Tired of being disillusioned, discouraged, and disappointed? Or perhaps you’re even tired of being tired. Jesus said come to me and I will give you rest. Don’t expect Jesus to come to you. Go to Him. For the rest you are longing to receive awaits you when you will come to Jesus. If you are waiting for Him to come to you; you are going to have a long and disappointing wait.