Come to Him and Rest

Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

When health strikes against you, it is easy to want to fight back, to do it yourself. This is at least the case for me. This past year I struggled with the diagnosis of a rare form of intestine cancer.

At the young age of 33, having cancer is not easy; at any age cancer is not easy. It took me a long time to surrender to God, to know that He could and is able to help me. I was so exhausted from going to doctor after doctor trying to figure out what I had and how to get help. The only option was an extensive surgery and with my pre-existing conditions, it would present more complications than I would ever know, or we could ever plan for. I had more hospitalizations than we ever thought. I was in the hospital every other month, once for 25 days. It broke me. As I laid there, I heard Him say to me as I was so weary ‘come to me and I will give you rest.’ It was then I realized I had tried to do it all on my own. I didn’t fully trust that He could help me in the midst of my pain and anguish.

God can and will help you in your greatest need. Reach out and call to Him. When I was so desperate and I had nothing left, that is when He spoke. When have you needed to rest? It is easy to go, go, and go. Matthew 11:28-30 is a great reminder to us that if we come to Him, He will give us the rest that we need in whatever form that looks like.

Dear God, help us to remember to come to You, to trust You, that when we come to You, You will give us rest. We often are so weary and burdened with our daily lives, our struggles, our to-do lists. Help us to say no when we need to. Help us to rest when we need to. Help us to come to You and to rest as our lives are so burdened by the struggles of our daily needs. Help us to lay them at the cross. In Your Name, Amen

I previously published this article as a guest post on Meg Corrigan’s Brilliant Resilience Blog. Here’s the original article.