No Strings Attached
READ
Have you ever wronged a friend or family member and then they held it against you until you earned back their favor? Or have you ever had a friend make you feel like to stay in their good graces, you had to constantly strive to keep them happy?
In the book of Matthew, we’re shown that the ways of Jesus are not our ways. When He offers us forgiveness, it comes with no strings attached. When He gives us His love, we don’t have to strive to earn it or even keep it.
Instead, we’re invited to experience His life-changing forgiveness – a forgiveness that leads us into a relationship with a God who promises rest instead of demanding performance.
Take a moment to read these words in Matthew 11:28-30:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
REFLECT
I don’t know about you, but I had to read these verses twice. What a balm to a heart battered by a weary world that runs on transactional relationships!
While the world says, “Do better. Be better.” Jesus says, “Come, I will give you rest.”
When cultural pressure sells us the message of, “Toughen up. Earn approval. You have to be somebody.” Jesus reminds us, “I am gentle and humble in heart, and in me alone you will find rest for your souls.”
When society says, “Work harder. Climb that ladder. Chase the next best thing.” Jesus tells us, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light. Come, rest in me.”
The forgiveness we find in Christ doesn't just save us so we can go to heaven, but it also saves us from a lifetime of striving and performing to earn His favor – because the forgiveness we have in Christ has life-giving implications for our days here and now!
And according to Jesus in Matthew 11, one of those implications is that we’re invited to receive His forgiveness and find rest in Him and Him alone! What a gift!
RESPOND
Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.
Do you find yourself striving for God’s approval or trying to earn His forgiveness? What would it look like for you to find your rest in Christ?
Are there areas of your life that you need to be reminded that God’s forgiveness is FREE and that it invites you to a life of rest, free of striving and performance?
REST
Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:
God, thank you for being a God who is gentle and humble in heart. Lord, give me eyes to see the ways that I’m striving to earn your approval, and give me the grace and courage to instead find my rest in you. When I forget and start finding my worth in performing, help me to remember that your forgiveness has life-giving implications for today, not just for eternity, and that your invitation is to simply come. Come to you, weary, burdened, and heavy-laden, and to find my rest in you and you alone.
Port City writer Brittany Salmon wrote today’s devotional.