Be not afraid-He goes before us, always

Prayer for the Day
Dear God, please help us to live fully in the present. Help us to work for love, peace, and justice in the here and now. Amen.

Reflection
There are some weeks when we work day after day after day, but feel like we’re getting nowhere. Or we may be discouraged that we can't accomplish more.  We wonder how we can find strength for another day - or another hour.

Jesus cares about how much we have to do, and He knows how difficult it is for us. He doesn't want to see us discouraged and overburdened and sapped of energy. So He gives us a very special invitation: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

He's looking right at us, offering us some respite, something that perhaps is long overdue in our life: R-E-S-T.

And here's the good part: it's not just any kind of rest; it's HIS kind of rest.

It's not a false respite, from a bottle or a pill or a pillow. It's God's kind of rest; Straight from the heart of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our Savior. He alone can give us this kind of rest. It's a good rest, a real rest, God's rest. And He wants us to have it.

Isn't that great? Isn't that worth a try? Jesus will deliver. Just give Him a chance.

So, how do we get the kind of rest that Jesus wants to give us? First, He tells us to come to Him. Simply; humbly, like a little child.

Then, we just have to tell Jesus that we want to take Him up on His promise: we want to take on His yoke, His way of working, and learn His way to move with the tasks in our life.

His way provides His kind of rest. Even though we’re still working, now we’re working under His yoke -- and that makes all the difference in the world. We will still be working, but it will be different with Jesus in charge. By taking His yoke and learning from Him, "we will find rest" for ourselves.