Well, welcome back again to another podcast of Struggling Well. And as you join us this week, we're in that week that's called Holy Week in between Palm Sunday and Easter. And it's a special time in our faith because we focus in on the reality of the gospel, the reality of what Jesus did for us. But Jesus made a lot of statements to his disciples that we found to be very encouraging, challenging. And Suzi, why don't you take us where one has landed on you?
I've been thinking a lot about Matthew 11:28. And that actually came from the thought was put into my heart because Jimmy and I listen at night to Leio 365. And if you haven't ever used that app, it's a wonderful devotional app. We I think we've mentioned it before, but they have a devotional thought and but it's not just lightweight. It's really heavy enough to really per penetrate your soul.
No, it stirs things in. stirs things. That's the way to put it. So, they have a morning, an a midday one, and a night one. And Jimmy and I listen to the one at night before we go to bed. And it's it has given us such peace through the night. And for me, I am a vivid dreamer. And so, it has helped me with not dreaming the way I've been dreaming because my brain is like, a sponge. I pick up everything that's good and bad. And so, when things get imprinted on my mind and in my thoughts, it's hard to get them out. I just go over them all day long. All night long I should say. So listening to Leio has been a wonderful blessing and has relieved me from those nightmares. But anyway, one of the days they were talking about Matthew 11:28. And I'm going to read it to you from the NLT. Jesus said, "Come to me all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle of heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear and the burden I give you is light. And that verse is a very very comforting verse. you've probably shared that with somebody or been given that. But as always whenever I read a passage that really jumps out at me, I like to hear what other people think about it. And so I look at different books and authors and commentators and I just want to see how they dissect or unpack it. And I love the way Spurgeon talks about studying God's word when he says you need to dissect, investigate, and weigh what the master is teaching word by word and every syllable will come back to your heart. And so as I looked at this passage, I wanted every syllable to come back to my heart, every word. So in my reading, some of what I've discovered is that we all bear a yoke of some kind. a lot of what he's talking about here though is those people that had been under a lot of different kind of teaching and they had had this yoke from the religious Sadducees and Pharisees of the time putting these enormous burdens on them. And so they were laboring for salvation. They were doing trying to do all these things to make sure that God would be pleased with them. And they were trying to bear the weight of their own sins. And that is not the labor that Jesus is talking about because that labor doesn't bring rest. What he says in this passage is he's addressing those that are bearing this yoke of trying to figure out their lives themselves, their salvation themselves, and also carrying these burdens that are pressing them down and they're weary by this load and feel like they can never do enough. And as I was thinking about this last night, the word guilt came to me. And I'll tie it back up to this verse in chapter 11, Matthew 11:28. But I was kind of overwhelmed with guilt last night. I was laying in bed. Of course, you know, we had listened to Lectio, but I was still ruminating and all these things that I hadn't done or should have done or wish I hadn't done came to my brain. And I felt overwhelmed with guilt and I'm praying through the guilt, asking the Lord to sift between conviction and condemnation because I certainly felt the con condemnation. I actually woke up with it this morning. I hadn't even told me that yet. But Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens." So the burden of my guilt, if there is sin there that I need to repent of, then I need to repent of it. But if there is guilt put on by my flesh or the enemy, that I need to be able to give that burden to him. But he says that the rest that comes is not a rest that we can earn. But this is the coolest part. It's the rest that he has earned by his life and going to the cross and paying for our sin. It's his gift of grace. But the thing that just hits me the most is at the very beginning of that verse when it says Jesus said, "Come to me." So I think about and I and I'm going for a while here, Jimmy, so you can jump in anytime you need to. Or Tim, our producer, can do the same. You know when your kids are you're out in the they're out in the street and they're playing and you need them to come And so you go, you know, Billy, come to me. Come to me. And what you're saying is to your son or your daughter, leave where you're at and come to me. Now, as a parent, you know that sometimes that's a joke. They don't come. But Jesus is saying, leave, excuse me, leave where you're at. That place of condemnation, that place of guilt, that place of burden, trying to work out your salvation. Come to me and I will give you rest. And That's the thing about this verse is coming to Jesus. You know, there are there's something better than struggling and striving to figure out our salvation, the working of our salvation. The rest that he gives is being free from that burden, but also free from the burden of sin.
Yeah. It reminds me a couple years ago I had a conversation with a young man and in that conversation he kept talking about trying and trying and how hard he was trying to please God. How hard he didn't know Christ and he how hard he was going to try. He was going to try. He was going to do his best. He was going to do his best. And I remember sitting there finally just saying to him, "Quit. Stop.
You can't do that.
You can't do what you think you can do. It has to be coming to Jesus on his terms, which means I come to him and I take on his yoke, which is easy and doesn't create burden because of what he's done for me. Sin is an incredible burden. and as I've picked up in all of my reading and studying, it's a brutal, this is a quote, slave master. And that kind of slavery leads to death. It doesn't lead to freedom. While obeying God leads to freedom and righteous living, but none of that is possible without the cross because his redemptive work on the cross saved us from the penalty of sin and broke the power of sin over us. So, as we look to Easter, we look to good Friday where Jesus dies on the cross and then we look to the resurrection on Sunday. This is not just a once a year holiday. This is a this is where life is. This is where freedom is. In the beginning of time when Adam and Eve broke God's heart and broke what God had given them as this beautiful perfect place, redemption began to be in place from the very onset when God killed an animal. shed blood for them to cover them. Redemption has been offered throughout our time, our human existence. But we have to acknowledge that we are slaves to something other than God. We have to acknowledge that we cannot fix ourselves. We cannot be pro- anything and think that's going to fix the world. But what has to be fixed is our individual hearts.
Right? And so as you head into this whole week as you towards Good Friday as Suzi said and then resurrection day on Easter. Our prayer is that you know the one who gave his life on your behalf and you realize I can put aside my striving to do something and rest in what he's done for me. Have a great week.