WHERE TO FIND REST

As the older sister to two bothersome amazing younger brothers, I have had to settle more arguments and fights than I can count. There’s always something that has been done or something that needs to be reported, and my brothers deem it fit to come to me with these complaints and reports.

At some point, I decided not to receive any more complaints or resolve any more issues between them, and so I began to refuse to settle their differences whenever they came to me.

A few days ago, I came across Matthew 11:28, and this time, the verse struck me differently. It says, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

Jesus starts this verse with a warm invitation, one contrary to the attitude I had set up against my brothers. While I had sent them away, Jesus extended a hand.

Further into the verse, I find out that Jesus doesn’t extend His invitation to those who have it going great for them; He extends it to those who are pressed down and burdened, longing for relief. In our world today, a lot of people don’t want to be associated with those who have problems or burdens. And as much as I wouldn’t trade my brothers for the world, I didn’t want to be part of whatever fight or argument they were having. But Jesus tells us here that He wants to be a part of whatever it is that we’re going through.

The best part of this verse is Jesus’ promise of rest. There’s this really good feeling that comes with knowing that the person you’re bringing your problems to has a solution.

It is wonderful to note that Jesus extends this invitation and promise to "all" that are in this condition! Not only was He saying, "Come unto me... and I will give you rest" over two thousand years ago, but He’s saying it to us even right now.

I have had my fair share of settling my siblings’ fights, and I had to make them understand that I couldn’t settle "all" of their fights or resolve "all" of their issues. But here we have Jesus, assuring as many who labor and are heavy laden that there’s room to come to Him.

And I think... it’s about time we took Him up on His offer.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Four-Unit Course; Lecturer in Charge- Life.

Image
  “What will it cost you to help him?”  “Why can’t you help her?” “Just help.”  Definitely words my mum said on repeat to me and my brothers while growing up, accompanied by a look that said, “Nawa for you.” My dad, on the other hand, always said, “We are here to serve and not to be served.” This was (and I believe still is) our family motto. It took a while for me to accept this, because why would anyone choose serving over being served? A number of times, I voiced out: I didn’t want to serve anyone; I wanted to be by myself. My dad didn’t have it though, he always tried to make me see reasons why I couldn’t be by myself, and insisted we lent a helping hand anywhere and everywhere. Once, he made us help out with the serving of food at someone’s wedding reception. And yes, we were guests. As I grew older, our conversations changed shape, maybe because the problem had changed shape. I had finally understood why it was good to be helpful, but what I still didn’t understa...
Read more

MR NIGER D A?

Image
  Primary school was bliss, really. Remember how we used to shout “it cannot go” when we were made to subtract bigger numbers from smaller numbers? Amazing time. Having to make reference to the characteristics of living things while studying “Biology of Behaviour” took my mind back to my MR NIGER D days. I said the familiar acronym, stating what each letter stood for, and I thought, “Where’s adaptability?” While I cannot completely recall at what stage adaptability as a characteristic of living things was introduced, I found myself thinking about this characteristic longer than expected. Adaptability, according to the Oxford Learner's Dictionary, is the quality of being able to adjust to new conditions. And according to the Cambridge Dictionary, it's the ability or willingness to change in order to suit different conditions. Once, I had to meet up with someone to pick up a few things. As I headed for where she was waiting, I stepped into a puddle of dirty water and some of it...
Read more

Welcome Blog

Image
Heyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! I am super excited to have you over here at my blog and I really hope you are as excited to be here as I am to write to you because that’d be a great match of energyyyyyy! Before I go further, my name is Ayomide ADERIBIGBE and my blog will be centered around topics that pop up in my day- to- day life, my experiences, conversations and so much more! Virginia Woolf once said, “Every secret of a writer’s soul , every experience of his life, every quality of his mind, is written large in his works.” And so, in my blog, I hope to write about my life as a first-born, my experiences as a writer, my interests as a reader, my journey as a Christian, my background as a pianist, my opinions as a person and pretty much anything that comes to mind. I’m not the writer I hope to be yet but someone once told me, “Better is not a destination, it’s a journey”. And so, as I embark on my journey to becoming a better writer, I hope you stick around long enough to watch my writings...
Read more