COME AS YOU ARE, LET GOD DO THE REST!
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. ~Matthew 11:28-30
What an invitation! Jesus says that everyone who is sick and tired of being sick and tired can come to Him for rest. Living in this semi-post-pandemic world with the ‘new’ day-to-day drama, this promise of coming as you are for God to do the rest may seem too good to be true. What is the catch right? Can Jesus keep such a promise? There is only one way to find out. We have to try Him for ourselves, take the challenge, and find out what believers of the Most High God have experienced for years - Jesus is unlike any other and He is true to His word. This one simple question is segue into the most valuable relationship of your life and that is, do you believe Jesus can do it for you? What we must see is that no one comes to Christ ‘prepared’ or ‘ready’! God wants us to come as we are.
Someone may say, ‘well I just love my cigarettes.’ God says, come as you are. Another might say, ‘I drink all the time and go to the club.’ God says, come as you are. Yet another may whisper, ‘I have this addiction.’ God says, come as you are. Many others might say, ‘I just need to clean up first, or ‘I’m not worthy.’ Instead of building walls to block Jesus, open the door to your heart with gratefulness because God says, come as you are!
We first must be willing to take a stand and stop letting the enemy in our mind lie to us about who God is and what HE can do! John 14:6, Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man come unto the Father, but by me! God has given us all a mustard seed of faith and with that small seed of faith, we can gain access to the Blessings and Deliverance God has for us.
Another question to ask is, do you believe God will do it for you? Romans 10:9 tell us that if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The promises of the Most High God doesn’t stop there! God will give us His mercy, His grace, His peace, and His LOVE!
Friends, let’s circle back to the first question which is, do you believe God will do it for you? Friends, I pray you answer Yes! As you can see, accepting Christ Jesus as our Lord and Savior is the easy part, but we have a major role to play too! We have to be willing to kill off the ego, and the me-first mentality, let go of some hateful grudges, and regrets, ignore what we see happening for ‘everybody else’, and submit ourselves to the will of the Most High God. James 4:7 says, submit yourself, therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. When we look at the word ‘flee’, it means to run away from, to leave, and to escape. Now let’s look at that heavier term, ‘submit’. In the word of God, it means willingly giving oneself to be renewed or transformed. We have to want to be changed. We have to want deliverance. Moreover, we have to want God to bless us and carry all of our burdens.
God is telling us, Come unto me, all that is troubled and burdened, and He will give us rest. Listen, it comes to a point when we can become egregiously frustrated from being down every which way and that emotion grows into an inescapable desire to want to be set free. This is when we must be willing to walk through the valleys of our lives for the Blessings and perfect will of God to manifest His will in our life. We have to start knowing that the road will not be easy, but if we believe that God will do it, then He will. Because Jesus tells us that, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. All we have to do is come to Him.
The book of Psalms is one of my favorite books of the Bible because I learned that King David loved the Lord with all his heart. Specific chapters of Psalm tell us that David sinned like we do, felt pain like we do, suffered as we do, and he even had enemies as we do. David was not perfect just like us, but he knew how to worship the Lord. He knew how to repent and ask for God’s forgiveness. He knew how to give God praise, no matter what situation he was in. David once said I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth (Ps. 121:1-2), but he didn’t stop there, he went on to say I will Bless the Lord at all times and His Praise shall continually be in my mouth (Ps. 34:1).
David knew that the Lord was able to do all things but fail! So when we come to receive Jesus Christ as our savior we must know that there will be good days and bad days but know this, they only come to make us strong and to increase our faith. They come so that we can give our testimony and establish a foundation within us so that when we call on the name of Jesus, demons must flee. When we call on the name of Jesus, addictions must flee. When we call on the name of Jesus, He will carry all of our burdens because there is POWER in the name of Jesus.
God is giving us the opportunity to come to Him with all the problems we have because He has our back, and He will not let us fall. We should be glad to read today that Jesus is on our side, that we can come to Him as we are, and that the name of the Lord is a Strong Tower! We should be glad to know that no weapon, formed against us shall prosper and that He is an on-time God! We can be confident today and able to tell someone else that because Jesus died on Calvary for our sins and rose again three days later, we came to Jesus as we were for God to do the rest. We can tell someone that we are not the same because of our relationship with Christ and invite them to come as they are. We can tell them, God is calling for them to come as they are and He will do the rest.
Are you still waiting? I invite you to come as you are and let God do the rest. God Bless you and God be with you!
In His Service With Love,
The Rev
Reverend D.A. Whitney is the Founding Partner of Blessed 4 Life Ministries (B4LM), host of “Let’s Be Blunt With The Rev” and co-host of “Chatting With The Whitney’s” on Impact Radio USA @ https://pod.co/blessed-4-life-ministries The Rev is the author of several books including “Overcoming Principalities”. Contact The Rev at www.blessed4lifeministries.com or at blessed4lifeministries@gmail.com