This morning, I found myself reading parts of the Bible that I have read repeatedly for the last 30+ years. And believe it or not, those verses are as exciting to me now as they were then.
I never get tired of reading the Bible because it is the living word of God. The Apostle Paul said this: “ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” Romans 10:17 ESV
And Jesus said this: “15 You people who hear me, listen!… 28 “Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. 29 Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. 30 Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The load I give you to carry is light.” Matthew 11:15-30 ERV
In verses 16-27 of Matthew 11 Jesus was pointing out the hypocrisy and criticism of the religious leaders. They were critical of one another, of John the Baptist, and of Jesus and His miracles.
Jesus’ message was “Listen up! My teaching will give you rest from all your striving. It will give you peace and freedom from worry. My teaching is easy to accept”.
When I first began to really study God’s word I had a lot of misinformation to unlearn. Mine was a works based mentality. If I did enough good things, the Lord would be pleased with me. If I didn’t, watch out, “you never know what God will do”.
So, the first thing I had to do was saturate my thinking with the Father’s unconditional love.
As I said I spent months reading and re-reading the same portions of Scripture every day. Faith comes by hearing and hearing and hearing the word of God. My faith in God’s love grew until I became CONVINCED that nothing could separate me from the love of God!
Time does not permit for me to print out these verses so I will trust you to look them up for yourselves. Read them and let the Holy Spirit make them real to your heart.
Numbers 23:19, Psalms 91, Psalms 103, Psalms 143, Psalm 145, Romans 8, Ephesians 1:16-23, Ephesians 3:14-21 and Colossians 2:5-20.
Let me close with this from Romans 8.
“ What can we say about all this? If God is on our side, can anyone be against us? 32 God did not keep back his own Son, but he gave him for us. If God did this, won’t he freely give us everything else? 33 If God says his chosen ones are acceptable to him, can anyone bring charges against them? 34 Or can anyone condemn them? No indeed! Christ died and was raised to life, and now he is at God’s right side, speaking to him for us. 35 Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble, suffering, and hard times, or hunger and nakedness, or danger and death? 36 It is exactly as the Scriptures say,
‘For you, we face death all day long. We are like sheep on their way to be butchered.’
37 In everything we have won more than a victory because of Christ who loves us. 38 I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not life or death, not angels or spirits, not the present or the future, 39 and not powers above or powers below. Nothing in all creation can separate us from God’s love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord!” Romans 8:31-39 CEV
So listen up! Learn from the teaching of God’s word and find rest!