Today is Thanksgiving. A day to be thankful and give thanks to God for all He has given us. We sang one of my favorite songs (posted below) yesterday at church. It is just a great reminder that every hour of every day, we need God.
”Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
Are you weary? I’ll be honest, with all that is going on in the world, I have thought so often, “I’m tired, I’m weary, I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” We seem to be living in a world that is constantly arguing or complaining about something. And more and more, I find myself really frustrated listening to the arguing / complaining around me. I’m tired of it. I'm tired. I'm weary. This verse has been an amazing comfort, that the weary have somewhere to go to find rest and lay down our burdens. Somewhere we can go to heal our hearts and keep ourselves from falling apart.
As the song writer wrote, without God, we are broken. Broken in our sin. Broken in need of a Savior. But God is always willing to meet us at our brokenness and bring us healing. As Jude writes in verse 24, God is able to "keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy." Without fault = not broken. We need Jesus to do this. For those math brained people🙋♀️, Broken Hearts + Jesus = Faultless. We need God, without God, none of this is possible.
While writing this song, Matt Maher was inspired by C.S. Lewis, and his book "The Four Loves." In the first part of this book, C.S. Lewis outlines our relationship with God as a "need-love," We are in total need of God and his love, grace and redemption. "Man approaches God most nearly when he is in one sense least like God. For what can be more unlike than fullness and need, sovereignty and humility, righteousness and penitence, limitless power and a cry for help?" (https://www.cslewis.com/love-love-love-love/) "Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands toward your Most Holy Place. Praise be to the Lord, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him. The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress of salvation for his anointed one." (Psalm 28:3,6-8) David cried out to God, and God heard his cry for mercy and became his strength and fortress.
This song has one of the most beautiful, uplifting bridges that I have heard. It seems like Matt Maher took it directly from Psalm 69, which parallels this bridge almost perfectly. "But I pray to you, Lord, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation. Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters. Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me." (Psalm 69:13-15)
We need God, and we also need to thank God for all He has done for us, as without Him, we would remain broken forever. He has saved us from the depths of our sin and brokenness, and surrounds us with His love. He gives us blessing upon blessing, and grace upon grace. Without God, we are nothing. "I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. (John 15: 5) Let this be the thing you are most thankful for today, along with all of God's other blessings. We are free because of Jesus.
Lord, we need you, now more than ever!
"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (Colossians 2:6-7)
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