Prayer Journey Day 4

Matthew 11:28

Whether we know it or not, the way we are operating right now is shaping our future. We can either be intentional about it or not; the choice is up to us. But the great news is God has an amazing preferred future for our lives and He invites us to join Him in creating that tomorrow today. During this reading plan, we’ll focus on the future and how we can live with it in mind today.

“You’re not doing too much, you’re carrying too much.” Those words will ring in my head forever.

I’ve never been great at sitting in one place and enjoying the stillness of life. I’d rather spend my time staying busy and filling up my days with conversations and activities. For years, people told me I needed to slow down or give something up.

I was never encouraged by those words; if anything, I was discouraged. I enjoyed serving in church, being involved in students’ lives, and meeting up with friends for coffee to hear about what God had been doing. None of these were bad things, so why was I so exhausted?

It wasn’t until someone looked at me and said those nine words that I was able to understand the cause of my exhaustion. I was right; all the things in my life were good, and it wasn’t too much to do. However, it was way too much to carry. The success or failure of the ministries I worked in wasn’t meant to be carried by me. My friends coming to know the Lord or not does not determine my identity. My job is to act in obedience and release the results back to God. As much as I wish I could swoop in and change someone’s heart, I can’t.

In The Parable of the Sower, Jesus described a man who planted seeds and they fell onto multiple types of soil. The man planting the seeds did not have control of where they landed, but he was obedient in releasing the seeds from his hand onto the earth. We cannot change the soil; only God can. Our job is to plant the seed. The success or failure of the plant is up to God.

In Matthew 11:30, two verses after the one listed above, Jesus said, “For my yoke is easy to carry and my burden is light.” We were not meant to carry so much of the stress of this world. So today, come to the Father, and He will give you rest.

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