“Run to Me”

“Run to Me”
Matthew 11.28-30
28"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
For those who do not know me well, I have a confession to make—I am an avid geek. Computers, video games, books, and the like are all my specialties. It is not surprising that I should find an idea for a devotion from a video game. I was playing a game online with one of my friend from work. He was, to say the least, much more experienced at this particular game. In the game you fight all sorts of monsters in a dungeon. When one of the monsters began attacking me, I ran away from my friend trying to escape from the monster. My friend informed me: “Run to me, not away.” You see, he was a much higher level in the game than I was, and if I had simply ran towards him, he could have killed the monster. I say all of this to make a connection. You see, beloved, just like that game, we all have our enemies that come chasing after us. We all know what sins or struggles arise in our lives that attempt to chase us away from Christ. Thankfully, however, we have Christ right there to fight our battles.
Jesus promises this in Matthew 11. One of the most comforting passages in all of scripture is when Jesus tells us to “come to [Him], all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” We must come to Him. Most of us run away from Him in times of trouble. We attempt to solve our problems with our own knowledge and effort. We end up only making the problem much worse and, worst of all, we alienate ourselves from Christ in the process. Jesus makes it very clear as to what we should do when we are “weary and burdened.” We should run to Him, not away from Him. We all have those monsters in life that appear large and as if they will eat us alive: Satan likes them to look and feel that way. Jesus doesn’t. Jesus says that we can “find rest for our souls” in Him. We need only to “[t]ake [His] yoke upon [us] and learn from [Him].”
What is it today that is frightening you? It may be a struggle at work or home, or a sin preventing you from living in the fullness and holiness of the Holy Spirit. It may be someone else to whom you need to minister in some way. There are thousands of monsters that can chase us away from Christ, but there is only ONE person who can save us from these monsters: Jesus. If you need to re-place your trust in Him, do not hesitate to run to Him. Run to Him in times of trouble, beloved; don’t run away. Running to Him places us safely in the arms of His abundance, power, grace, and love! Amen.
With love in Christ,

Austin Aldrich