Good day my dear friends! We have made it to the month of August of 2010, can I hear an Amen 🙂 The month of August is the time of the year when many try to get away for a time of vacation before the kids go back to school and the summer season comes to an end.

Ahhh vacation; just thinking about that word should get us excited for we are finally going to get away for some fun and REST so we can  be charged up to face another year. The problem with most vacations is that they seem to filled up with either driving or flying somewhere where we have to live out of our suitcases and eat restaurant food; time spent visiting our relatives or close friends who love  to fill our every moment; time standing in long lines at some theme park or time watching our skin cook in the hot sun; sounds like fun and rest doesn’t it. Don’t get me wrong, I love doing all that stuff  but the problem is that I am usually in great need of a vacation from after taking a vacation; it doesn’t make sense. Still all in all we  need a time where we get away to clear our minds but what happens when we get back to our regular schedules and we become weary again but all of our vacation time is has been used up?

Most of us know the Scripture in Matthew 11:28 where Jesus says “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Jesus is not saying here that when we come to Him He will send us on an all expense paid 2 week vacation to a destination of our choice; it’s much deeper than that.

The Jews at that time were groaning under the weight of trying to keep all their ceremonial laws and the traditions of the elders. Jesus was saying to the Jews at that time, as well as us today, that if they would just embrace Him and all that He was offering to them, they would be free from trying to keep laws they couldn’t keep and they would have freedom. Jesus was also speaking to the sinner who was burdened under the weight of his sins and desperately wanting deliverance from the penalty of his sins. If sinners did this Jesus would give them rest from their sins, rest from the alarms of conscience, rest from the terrors of the law and rest from the fears of eternal death. See if 2 weeks in the finest suite in the Virgin Islands with anything at your fingertips will do that for you.

David declared in Psalm 62:1-2 “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will never be shaken.” The psalmist declares in Psalm 91 1-2 “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” 

Let me say it again, I totally agree that we all need time where we can away from our daily grind for a time so we can re-charge our batteries but that is not where we will find our true rest.

The marvelous thing about entering into His rest is that we can have peace in the midst of the storms of life that will come our way for He will be our fortress and our refuge. You and I will never be able to find that on a cruise, in Disneyland or any other place we can think of; it can only be found in our Lord

So I say to you all, enjoy your time of vacation this year, have fun and get refreshed but make sure that find your true rest in Jesus the Lord!!!