Live in peace (not RIP) – Friday, 01 November

“28 Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28 KJV

How do you deal with the problems and challenges that come your way? Who, or what do you turn to for help, comfort and encouragement? We often tend to turn to anything but Jesus in our time of need, but He offers us an amazing invitation to come to Him and find rest.

When we turn to anything or anyone other than Jesus in our time of need, it may help us momentarily but it cannot cause us to live in perpetual peace and rest. We should not only be resting in peace when we die, God wants us to live in peace and rest!

When the challenges of life come, some people turn to sin for comfort and relief from stress (indulging in fornication, gluttony or abuse of alcohol etc.) and it only creates bigger issues. You may not be turning to some kind of sin for stress relief but if you’re turning to anything other than Jesus it’s not going to help you – the relief will only be short-lived. There is a much better way to deal with pressure and stress.

An intense workout at the gym, a ride in the mountains, a week at the beach, a delicious piece of chocolate cake, a soothing flat white, a few hours in a good book, or escaping into another world through computer games, movies or series etc. etc. – these things are not sin but they are not Jesus. They may offer temporary relief but they will not offer a solution to the stress.

You may experience momentary relief by going to Mauritius or the gym, but it is only ever going to be momentary relief – it will only distract you from the present for a period of time. The problem with a holiday is that it eventually ends and you have to come back to the same problems and those problems waited for you while you were ignoring them. As soon as you’re done with the stress-relieving activity you’ll have to pick up the burden again, and then when reality hits and the pressure is too much again, you will have to go for another run, holiday, movie etc.

It’s not wrong to have an outlet – exercise and holidays are good – but they are not the solution to stress. Jesus is. In challenging circumstances, the first thing that we should do is to accept Jesus’ invitation to come to Him so that we can find rest. If you came to Jesus and dealt with the pressures before you went on holiday you’d have a much better holiday.

What does it mean to come to Jesus? It’s about casing our care on Him, trusting in Him, relying on Him and doing life out of a relationship with him. It’s about focusing on His promises in the Word and choosing to believe them rather than whatever we see or feel, and allowing His voice to be the loudest voice in our lives.