what are you trying to prove?

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you that you offer us the invitation to come to you and rest.  Rest is such a fleeting and fragile thing in this world of achievement and accomplishment.  It seems that we are constantly being asked to prove that we are worth loving.  And that is so overwhelming, depressing, and exhausting.  It can wear us down and burn us out.  So help us to take you up on your invitation today, so that we might actually be able to breathe again.  That we might be able to truly find our rest in you.  Amen. 

Scripture: Matthew 11:28-30

Journal: What are you trying to prove?  How does it keep you from rest?

Reflection: “What are you trying to prove?  Why do you keep running around wearing yourself down, loading yourself up, and burning yourself out?  Why are you trying so hard to prove to yourself and your world—and even to me—that you are worth loving?  Come to me and I will give you rest.  Come to me and I will show you who you really are; I will show you who I made you to be.  I will show that it is not what you do that makes you valuable, it is who you are.  In fact, it is whose you are.  You are mine.  You belong to me.  I love you fully, passionately, and unconditionally.  Take that “yoke” upon you and you can finally stop running and performing and jockeying.  Take my yoke upon you and you will finally be able to stop and to breathe.  You will finally be able to recover the life of your soul.”

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Find rest, O my Soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. (Psalm 62: 5-8, NIV)