Matthew 11:28 (NKJV) 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Jesus spoke in ways that most of the religious leaders of His time could not comprehend. They couldn’t understand the symbolic underpinnings of His teaching because their eyes were closed, and their ears were deaf.
Instead of listening, and trying to hear what he meant, they grew angry and ridiculed Him, eventually scheming to have Him killed.
The verse above is one of those that had deep symbolic meaning that many of the ordinary, everyday people understood deep in their spirits. And because they “got it”, they flocked to Him to be set free from the entanglements that they wrestled with in their personal lives.
Jesus wasn’t referring to people who were physically weary. He was calling out to those who were afflicted, not just physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well.
Jesus came to show us what true freedom is. He demonstrated right before their eyes the reality and the truth of freedom from things that oppress us, things that condemn us and things that can destroy us.
Many of you reading this know exactly what I’m referring to because we can all wrestle with things from time to time that grip us and make us feel like there is no hope for freedom in our lives.
Addiction, depression, sickness, unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy, coveting, lust, and so many other things are struggles that can literally wreak havoc with our lives.
But there is no need for us to wrestle with these things for years on end, watching them destroy us a little at a time. Jesus came to set the captives free.
Luke 4:18 (NKJV) 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
Now, I know that some people may get offended when they are told that “there is no need for us to wrestle with these things for years on end”. Others may bristle up and state bluntly that, “it’s not easy to overcome these kinds of things”.
To that I say, “surrender it to God. Let Him have it. Stop trying to do it by your own strength”.
It is in doing this that we finally find true freedom; freedom in Christ.
God does not arbitrarily swoop down and just take something from us. We must reach a point where we are willing to lay it at His feet and surrender to Him. We surrender everything.
Why? Because we come to the realization that we can’t win this battle on our own.
It’s in the surrendering where we find victory; the victory that we could not find for so long, as we struggled from one day to the next to find a way out of the box that we had been trapped in.
It was in the surrendering where the woman with the issue of blood found her healing after spending all she had on doctors for 12 years.
It was in the surrendering where Bartimaeus found his eyesight.
It was in the surrendering where Mary Magdalene found freedom from the demons that had held her captive and tormented her for so long.
And it is in the surrendering where you can find your freedom as well.
Stop trying to do it by your own strength. Stop trying to figure it out in your mind. Stop running from God.
Instead, run to Him! Lay whatever it is you’re wrestling with at His feet. Give it to Him and leave it there. It is no longer yours to carry.
And cry out, “Lord, have mercy on me”. Amen.
Luke 18:38 (NKJV) 38 And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Pastor Curt & Pastor Ellie
Seven Seas Ministries
49 N Lamplighters Walk
Hampstead, NC 28443
401-439-3780
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