Encouraging Words from Barbara Francis
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.
—Matthew 11:28-30
How would your prayer life deepen and expand if you paused right now and allowed the truth of this invitation to wash over your soul?
I’ll start:
I am one who is given to burden-bearing. I carry mine, my families, my friends’, and even the burdens of people I pass on the street. Carrying burdens robs me of what Jesus came to give me: hope, joy, peace, and release. I simply must let the resulting lack of these conditions be the alarm in my soul to get to prayer, casting the whole of my care on him because he loves me. And the exchange is fantastic: “I will cause you to rest!” Ahh, just what I needed. And it all happens by taking time to pray, being honest with the stuff rumbling around in my heart.
- Barbara Francis
|
