Tuesday, February 28, 2012
You
are invited
Margin is our space between load and limit. Margin is not laziness, it’s wisdom. Jesus is telling us how to add margin into our lives. I want to pick up on four words he uses in this great invitation.
“Come to me,
all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The
greatest invitation you could ever get is an invitation from Jesus Himself. I’ve
often viewed this invitation from Jesus being directed to those who have not
received him. But as I reflect on it more and more, I realize that it’s an
invitation for us who just need to rest.
I know resting literally means salvation. We don’t have to earn our
salvation. We receive salvation as we rest in the work that Christ has
accomplished for us. But we can get
caught up in so many things that we don’t have rest, even in our relationship
with Jesus. So I believe Jesus is inviting all of us to continue to rest in
Him. Jesus is inviting his own overloaded children to come to Him. Jesus knows
that all of us need some margin in our lives.
Suppose
you were reading a book and that book had the words starting at the very top
left corner of the page and continued to the very far right corner of the page –
all the way down to the very bottom of the page. Would it be difficult to read?
YES. Publishers understand that there is a need for white space or margin. The margin
gives our eyes a chance to rest and focus. It helps us to make distinctions
between the words.
We
need margin in our lives. Jesus understands this and invites to come to him.
Jesus frequently stopped to rest. He got away by himself, alone with God. Margin is our space between load and limit. Margin is not laziness, it’s wisdom. Jesus is telling us how to add margin into our lives. I want to pick up on four words he uses in this great invitation.
COME
– come to him. Depend on him. Bring to him your burdens, your cares, your
stresses, the undone things in your life…just come.
TAKE
– take his yoke upon us. A yoke was used
to join two oxen together so they would pull the plow together. Jesus is inviting
us to allow him to pull with us. What is his yoke? It’s his grace. It’s his
truth. It’s his goodness. It’s his love for us.
LEARN
– what will learn from Jesus? He says two things: gentleness and humility. Isn’t
it nice to be yoked up with someone who is gentle and humble? Just look how
Jesus handled his own disciples. Jesus handled them with patience and kindness
and love! He deals with us in the same manner.
REST
– if we keep coming and taking and learning from Jesus – He gives us rest for
our soul! What a great exchange.
Are
you building margin in your life? Are you resting in Jesus? He’s inviting you
to do that today.
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