Greetings ABC family! It was a delight to be back with you Sunday. I hope you are all having a great week. This Sunday I will be preaching from Psalm 27 on the subject “Conquering Fear.” We will be looking at this psalm which provides practical guidance in how to deal with the fears that can so easily paralyze us. See you Sunday. Invite a friend to join us!!
Dane Ortlund has written a wonderful book entitled Gentle and Lowly. He points out that in the eighty-nine chapters that make up the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there is only one place where Jesus tells us about his own heart. It’s found in a verse that is very familiar to us:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest of your souls. For my yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matt. 11:28-30.
Jesus tells us to “come” to Him. There is nothing more important that we can do. We need Jesus! We need the “rest” that He promises to give to those who run to Him. And we can come and be received by Him because he is “gentle and lowly of heart.”
Jesus’ heart, his inner person, the very core of His being is “gentle and lowly.” To be gentle means that Jesus is meek, humble, Dane Ortlund writes, “…Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe.”
As Dane Ortlund points out, to be “lowly” tells us that Jesus is accessible.
This is Christ’s heart. Willing. Tender, Open. Ready to respond. The self-confident, the self-sufficient, those who have “their act together” need not come.
It’s the heavy-hearted, the broken, those who recognize their spiritual poverty, those burdened with the struggles of life and with their battles against sin that Jesus welcomes. As a matter of fact, it’s these very people that Jesus is drawn to like a magnet. He loves to pour His tenderness and strength into the souls of those who are weary and needy.
So here’s the question. Will you come to Jesus? Are you convinced you are unworthy, too mess-up to come? You are the very one Jesus wants to meet! He specializes in taking broken lives and making them whole again. And when you come you will truly find “rest for your souls!”
For His glory,
Tim