Know & Rest: Revisiting the Greatest Invitation of All Time

First Published on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 2:08pm

You must have heard this passage for quite sometime. Preachers would often quote this during an evangelistic event or when one would start the altar call, inviting the tired and weary to come to Jesus. Some would even make it sound hiply by adding "try Him today and see the difference". 

Sounds like a billboard ad!

The passage I am talking about is found in the book of Matthew 13:28-30.  I had the chance to revisit it recently and this time, I read its entirety. The NIV version subtitled it "The Father Revealed in the Son" beginning verse 25 up to 30 and i quote:

 25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.  28 “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. 

I could have settled on verses 28 to 30 for a quick reflection, yet my heart got stuck and dwelled on the first three verses.  As a result, three wonderful insights came afresh! By the way, I have shared these insights to our class yesterday, and my teacher said she felt so special to be reminded of these! ;-)  Now let me share them with you as well in the hope that your heart will sing love songs to the Lord Jesus as what the reflection did to me.

Here:

• We can only know the Heavenly Father through His Son Jesus Christ. 
• Jesus reveals the Father to whom He chooses to reveal Him. 
• We are able to come and surrender our lives to the lordship of Jesus Christ because He first revealed Himself to us.  And so we can, at any time come to Him for rest and refreshing.  I imagine myself, like a little child, He lets me sit on  His lap so I may lean and fully enjoy His tender embrace.

Come to think of it!  Jesus, the Son of God--- chose to reveal Himself and the Father to wretched sinners like us!  What a wonderful privilege it is for every follower of Jesus Christ to know Him and to keep on knowing Him each day.  It dawned on me that the depth of knowing God determines the degree of trust we could place in Him? And the degree of our trust in Him would actually serve as our "Rest Indicator" .  

What's amazing is that it is Jesus who initiates the knowing process and if we let Him to, He will further lead us through this lifetime pursuit of knowing Him deeper.  Could there be anyone who could ever make us feel special than the Lord Jesus? Not only that He could make us truly feel loved and cherished, He alone could provide us peace and hope that permeate every fiber of our being. May we desire  to know God more and more so that we may love Him deeper and deeper.

One quiet morning in my prayer, I asked, "Lord, what is your love language"   "I'm not sure if I was asking the right question, though. I just want to know what is it that touches your heart the most." Then I listed down possible answers (of course from the book Five Languages of Love by Dr. Gary Chapman) such as  Gifts, Service, Time, Word of Affirmation or Touch.  The one thing that stood out is TIME while the rest will just follow naturally.

Indeed, it is when we come and spend time with Jesus that the Father’s heart is being revealed.  It also reminds me to make the time to come to Him each day—and not to wait until weariness has overtaken me.  

The daily grind may be such an exasperating challenge and it calls us to juggle creatively just so we could cope with the demands of our respective commitments, yet it is His very presence that keeps the balance. And if we are aware that He is with us and if we choose to solely depend on Him, we'd be amazed how our strength is being renewed while our hearts are being filled with gladness. And no matter how stressful the day had been, we'll end it with a high note-- with our lips singing praises to our Heavenly Father. ;-)

Do I hear someone singing? ;-)

Breath-taking sunset. A view from my office window. (nk6303)