{"id":935,"date":"2017-09-03T05:57:41","date_gmt":"2017-09-03T05:57:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=935"},"modified":"2017-09-03T22:22:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-03T22:22:26","slug":"turning-weariness-into-rest-and-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/?p=935","title":{"rendered":"Turning Weariness into Rest and Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (Mathew 11:28<\/strong>)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>Have you ever noticed how the same workload can seem easy one day and insurmountably overwhelming the next?<\/p>\n

A few days ago, work seemed effortless, as I cruised along in the Rivers of Living Water, experiencing the joy of the Lord\u2019s nearness.<\/p>\n

However, only a day later, I \u00a0trudged through a dry dusty riverbed, pulling an overloaded donkey cart of work. Everything was difficult, stress mounted, people faded from focus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I sit wondering what happened, Why the drastic change?<\/p>\n

Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28 come to mind:\u00a0Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. <\/em><\/p>\n

Weary and heavy-laden, fatigued and over-burdened. That’s how I feel. But the work load hasn’t changed. Why has my heart shifted from delight to drudgery?<\/p>\n

I pore over the words again, stopping at the first phrase.<\/p>\n

Come to Me.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

But I\u2019m already with you, <\/em>I thought. You\u2019re in me and I\u2019m in You.<\/em>[1]<\/a> [2]<\/a> \u00a0You hold the universe together.<\/em>[3]<\/a>\u00a0How can I be any closer to you than I already am?<\/i><\/p>\n

I pull up my Strongs concordance app and dig into the word – “Come”<\/p>\n

In the original Greek the word \u00a0\u201ccome\u201d<\/em> means \u201ccome hither\u201d<\/em> or \u201ccome this way\u201d<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jesus is always\u00a0with<\/em> me, but He’s asking me for a deeper \u201cwithness\u201d.<\/p>\n

I think of being\u00a0with<\/em> people in an elevator. They are with me<\/em>, but unless we engage, there\u2019s no connection.<\/p>\n

One of my earliest memories comes to mind.\u00a0I remember being woken up and seeing someone enter the room through the bars of a crib. I’m not sure who the person was, probably my mother, but they picked me up and took care of me.<\/p>\n

Next I remember a little later being led by the hand by my great grandmother, \u00a0whom I called”Mommie,” \u00a0We were walking very slowly around a small a body of water.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how I know it was Mommie, but I do. We must have been at my grandparent’s place in Pompano Beach, Florida. And it must have been the garden pool in the midst of their nursery she was leading me around. I was so small, so dependent on her guiding hand.<\/p>\n

I was a mere toddler, but to this day I feel the love of those moments. Mommie led me with such tender care.<\/p>\n

As I think back to that event in light of my current situation, clarity emerges. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mommie was not giving me directions\u00a0<\/span><\/span>from far away, expecting me to walk on my own.\u00a0Her soft hand, firmly embracing my little fingers, communicated, “walk this way child. I’ll guide you and show you where to go. And I’ll support your feeble legs every step of the way.”<\/p>\n

Wow. I’d let go of the Lord’s hand. I’d lost the joy of His presence. I’d begun to look at work as just work, instead of the adventure He wanted us to have together.<\/p>\n

“I’m sorry, Lord,” I confess.<\/p>\n

I feel no condemnation, no displeasure, just an invitation.<\/p>\n

I lift my hand and hear Him say,\u00a0“Come this way<\/span>.”<\/p>\n

Rest<\/strong> – take ease, refresh, refrain, come to an end. <\/em><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Galatians 2:20<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ephesians 2:4-6<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Colossians 1:17<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (Mathew 11:28) \u00a0Have you ever noticed how the same workload can seem easy one day and insurmountably overwhelming the next? A few days ago, work seemed effortless, as I cruised along in the Rivers of Living Water, experiencing the joy … Continue reading Turning Weariness into Rest and Joy<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[452],"tags":[451,70,65,449,71,447,450,127,453,67,7,69,64,446,66,454,46,62,448,402,63,68],"class_list":["post-935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guiding-hand","tag-adventure-with-the-lord","tag-being-with-jesus","tag-burden-light","tag-colossians-117","tag-come-this-way","tag-come-to-me","tag-ephesians-24-6","tag-galatians-220","tag-garden-pool","tag-heavy-laden","tag-joy","tag-learn-from-me","tag-matthew-11","tag-matthew-1128-30","tag-overloaded","tag-pompano-beach","tag-rest","tag-weary","tag-withness","tag-work","tag-yoked","tag-you-shall-find-rest-for-you-soul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joy-in-the-journey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}