Trouble May Come but there is Help in the Storm

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

I learned something new today from this passage. It’s a familiar passage, but I think I’ve understood it wrong for most of my life.  My Life Application Bible Study Notes helped me see this passage in a different light today, and I think more the way it was intended to be understood.

I used to think that this verse meant that if you trusted in Jesus and prayed, your life would be easier; you wouldn’t experience as much difficulty or have to go through many difficult things.  But today, I see it differently.  It doesn’t mean that you won’t have to go through hard stuff.

Two things popped out for me today: First that you don’t have to work to receive God’s love and the help of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus has done all the work for you!  The Pharisees taught that people had to satisfy some difficult criteria and perfectly perform to be acceptable to God.  Here Jesus is simply telling us to “come.” “Come – and I will give you rest.” No work or special qualifications are required, just come.  Jesus is telling us there is no work needed to receive the love and help of God.

The second thing I learned today was more new to me.  I learned that it’s not that your life will be free of difficulties, but that by accepting Christ, you receive the assistance of the Holy Spirit to bring you through each challenge, each minute of every day.  That’s why we need to come to Him because He’s done this amazing work for us so that we can have His help to journey through life. When we trust in His help, things are much easier to bear.  SO IT’S NOT ABOUT YOUR LIFE BEING EASY; IT’S ABOUT GOD GIVING YOU THE HELP YOU NEED TO GET THROUGH.

Wow, God is so, so amazing! I just got back from a weekend of camping. As I sit here typing up my notes above from two years ago, I am amazed to find that God spoke this exact principle to me during a thunderstorm overnight Saturday into Sunday morning. God continues to amaze me with His timing in teaching me things!

A clap of thunder in the distance woke me up at 4:00 am. There was a storm brewing just off in the distance. I thought, “uh oh!” and got up with my husband to close the zippers and flaps everywhere in the camper.  Then I lay there praying Psalm 91 over us and asking God not to bring the storm.  That’s when God spoke to me.  He said, “you don’t need to ask me not to bring the storm because even if the storm comes, I will protect you in the storm.”  It was so cool!  In the end, we only had a little bit of rain, and the storm seemed to turn and just rumbled off in the distance for a while and never even came close.

Father God, thank you that You are always with us in the storms of life.  Help me not to worry about storms that may come and to trust that You will be right beside me all the way!