July 6 Daily Devotional

Bible Verse

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:28).

Devotional

How brightly the truth appears, written with beams of heavenly light—Jesus, the Rest of the weary!

"Come to me." The Father has made his Son the resting-place of his church. He himself has vested his whole glory in Christ. He knew what Christ was able to sustain. He knew that he could safely entrust the honor of his government into the hands of his Son as One equal with himself. He himself confided in Christ! His government and his church–all in Christ. To this "tried stone" he would now bring his people. He found it strong enough for himself, and he knows it to be strong enough for them, and with confidence he invites the weary to come and rest upon it. Jesus but echoes the heart of the Father when he says, "Come to me... I will give you rest."

Never did the tongue of Jesus utter more learned, more eloquent, more persuasive words. It is just the word we need. By nature, we seek rest everywhere, and in everything, except in Jesus. We seek it in the sensual world, we seek it in the moral world, we seek it in the religious world—we do not find it. We seek it in conviction, we seek it in ordinances, we seek it in doing the works of the law, and still it evades us. We go from place to place, from means to means, from minister to minister, from church to church, and still the burden presses, and still the guilt remains, and still we find no rest. No; and we never will find it until we seek and find it solely, wholly, exclusively, and entirely in Jesus.

Rest for the sin-weary soul is only to be met with in him who bore the curse for man's transgression. Here God rests, and here the sinner must rest. Here the Father rests, and here the child may rest. Jesus is the great burden-bearer, for God and for man.

Listen again to the melody of his words: "Come to me... I will give you rest." See, how he invites you, without a solitary condition. He makes no exception to your guilt and unworthiness. The word is, "Come to me;" in other words, believe in me. To "come" is simply and only to believe. And oh! how can we fully set forth the "rest" to be found it Jesus? Let those testify who took their guilt to his blood, their vileness to his righteousness, their sins to his grace, their burdens to his arm, their sorrows to his heart. Let them tell how, in a moment, their sense of weariness fled, and rest—sweet, soothing rest—came to their soul.

O reader, are you a sin-weary soul? Then, this invitation is addressed to you: "Come to me"—to me, a Savior whose willingness is equal to my ability. To me, who never rejected a single soul who sought salvation and heaven at my hands—"Come to me... I will give you rest."

Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched,
weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity joined with pow'r:
he is able,
he is able,
he is able,
he is willing; doubt no more.

(Joseph Hart, 1759, alt.)

Be sure to read the Preface by Octavius Winslow and A Note from the Editor by Larry E. Wilson.

Larry Wilson is an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In addition to having served as the General Secretary of the Committee on Christian Education of the OPC (2000–2004) and having written a number of articles and booklets (such as God's Words for Worship and Why Does the OPC Baptize Infants) for New Horizons and elsewhere, he has pastored OPC churches in Minnesota, Indiana, and Ohio. We are grateful to him for his editing of Morning Thoughts, the OPC Daily Devotional for 2011.