Bring It!

Matthew 11:28- "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

            Do you ever feel overwhelmed? I think we all have days and moments where we feel the pressures of this life weigh down upon us. We are not all overwhelmed by the same things, but we all certainly feel weighed down by something, at least some of the time. Some people are overwhelmed by their careers. Some people feel inundated by their family life. Others feel helpless as they consider their futures. The list of worries that we have is astronomical. At times it can feel like it is too much. At times we all feel like giving up.

            So what can we do when we feel overwhelmed? What can we do when the burdens of life assail us? We can undertake to lighten our load by trying harder or thinking different or any number of other self-help endeavors. The problem with these approaches is that they all rely on me. I better think differently or I better do differently, etc. If I was able to do it all myself I wouldn’t be overwhelmed in the first place! Thankfully for me and for you we have a God who says, “Bring it.”

            The bible tells us that we have a Savior who can sympathize with us. Our God is not some far off deity who “checks in” on us every once in a while. We have a God who says, “Bring it.” He looks at all our weakness, all our burdens, and all our pain and He says “bring it to me.” He doesn’t say that we need to try harder or that we need to think differently. He tells us to bring it all to Him. He tells us that He is powerful enough to deal with anything we have.

            Sometimes we wrongly believe that it is all up to us. We believe that we must muster up the power to deal with everything that goes on in our lives. This only leads to more helplessness and greater fatigue inside of us. We don’t need to get stronger; we need Jesus! We need to become more and more dependent on Him. We don’t need to be independent at all. He is the only One who is able to help us. He is our Savior and He tells us to bring it all to Him. He is able to deal with our insecurities. He is able to bear the weight of our shame. He is able to forgive our sins! We have a Savior and He tells us to bring it all to Him!

            I want to encourage us all to reflect back on the glorious gospel when we begin to feel overwhelmed. It should fill our hearts with a deep-seated peace to realize that the God who saved us from the curse of death is the same God who tells us to bring all our burdens to Him. He sent His Son to do what we could never do. He loved us before we ever even knew Him. He is our Father and He is able. Let’s cling to Him in our weakness. Let’s make much of Him when we feel strained and stressed by this life. The Savior who bore the sin of the world is certainly able to bear the burdens of our lives. We don’t need a self-help seminar; we need Jesus Christ. The great news for us is that He tells us to bring it all to Him!