According to Each One's Need
A. In Matt. 11:28-30, Jesus said, Come to Me, all you who
labor and are heavy laden, and
I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,
for I am gentle and lowly
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is
easy and My burden is light.
God knows our need for rest. No one understands more than He how
sin has disturbed our souls and disquieted our minds. Not only
does He have the wisdom to see our need, He has the ability and
the love to provide for that need in the very best way possible.
To have faith in God means that we put our confidence
in His wisdom, His goodness, and His power.
a. While its true that all sin comes from a willful rebellion
against the requirements of God,
Its also true that the consequences of sin can be quite
different from person to person.
(A) The word death (Romans 6:23) covers many different
kinds of damage.
Each of us stands before God broken and in need of restoration,
but what needs
to be restored depends on the unique combination of qualities
that God gave us
in the first place.
(1) Sometimes we need help seeing what our own needs really are.
The
story is told in Matt. 19:16?22, of a young man who came to the
Lord and
said, Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may
have eternal life?
When Jesus told him to keep the commandments, he replied, All
these things I
have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?
(a) Jesus instructed him to give everything he owned to the poor
and then
follow Him. At that point, the text says that , he went
away sorrowful,
for he had great possessions.
Here was a man who seemed to be honest. He seemed to seek relief
from the damage of sin in his own life. But when the Lord put
His finger on the problem that he actually needed help with, he
rejected the Lords help.
(2) Are we willing to accept the Great Physicians diagnosis?
Are we willing to take the steps His gospel requires? If so, then
rest will be given to each of us according to our need. The gifts
of God are as wonderfully varied as the people whom He has created.
(1) It was God, Himself, who gave each of us our own attributes,
and it is He who can restore what each has lost.
(2) For one man conversion and commitment means the slaying of
the beast within him; To another it brings the calm of conviction
to an unquiet mind; And for still another it is the entrance into
a larger liberty and a more abundant life; And yet again, to another,
it is the gathering of the forces of a soul at war with itself.
(3) Acts 20:32.
Spur - 10/06/02 pm
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