All who labor and are heavy laden with sin, the Lord calls, ‘Come to Me!’  For only He can give us the rest we need.  We may seek rest through other things. However, what He provides goes beyond this world. It is everlasting.  It’s ours if we hunger for it. We must be willing to come to Jesus empty. This means total surrender. Then these words will not be just mere words: ‘Be still and know I am God.’ God will open up to us a new place. It is called the stillness of God. This is for all who would place their faith in His Son Jesus Christ.  The world around us may be spinning in chaos. It even touches our own lives with grief, sickness, and tribulation of all kinds. The Lord will not allow the storm to overtake us. He will grant us His everlasting peace in it.  Let us be clear that when we seek others or things, we will not receive this peace.  We must see the difference between someone desperate to save their life and someone desperate to lose their life in order to be saved.  If you seek to save your life, you will lose it. If you lose your life for the sake of the Lord, you will find it.

This is worth repeating. We must forsake our life to cling to the Lord and be saved. This is what repentance means.  Without repentance, we cannot receive Jesus Christ to become our Lord and Savior, for we are still serving ourselves.  You cannot put new wine into old wineskins.  We must give up the old to receive the new.  The Lord calls us to follow Him, and this is the only way. 

The Lord is looking for those who would seek Him to learn who He is.  He searches for the hearts that desire to walk with Him in fellowship.  Are we interested in wanting a relationship with the Lord?  Do we seek God to (merely) be saved from the fires of hell?  Do we come before Him only when we are in a stressful situation? Do we approach Him only when we have a to-do list for Him?  He tells us that He already knows what we need. He cares for us just as a Husband cares for his wife and a father cares for his children. It is strange if we heard a wife ask her husband for protection, isn’t it?  Or for a child asking his father for necessities?  Yet, how much time do we ask in our prayers for these things?  Our job is to make sure we know the Lord we claim to believe and obey.  We should take time to sit with Him in prayer. We should read the Word and ask for His Holy Spirit to illuminate our path.   

He will lead us in His Light which is truth, and away from the darkness in the world and sin.  We will receive His cleansing through His blood. We will understand what clean is. We will lose the desire for all that is unclean.

We can overcome everything that has affected our lives. He has already overcome, allowing us to walk as He walks.  We must decide to go by the narrow gate. This gate is Christ and His way. As we do this, He shows us what is evil that we otherwise did not know.  He will show us things that we think are harmless that are harmful.  He will reveal to us the mind of Christ. Our desire to turn from what is not pleasing to Him will only increase.

For all who are the Lord’s will walk away from evil and in and toward His Light.  As it rises, we will be like the sun. It only grows brighter with the Light it contains. It becomes more glorious too.  The Son shines in us. Our path will be illuminated in the Glory of God. We will be clothed in His peace and know His joy.  We will know Him, and He will know us. 

Once, we were led by fear. But no more. Fear has no place in us now. Not even fear of death. For death is only the doorway to the one who we love to be finally with Him forever!