Come to Me

Happy Fall! Cold, crisp air...frost on the windows...the fire going in the evening...gloves dug out of the closet...the season has changed!

I was talking to my kids this weekend about preparing for winter. The news has shown other states having particularly cold weather already and some of the residents were not prepared. Last year when it snowed here, I was not fully prepared for it. So we sat down and made a list of some things we might need if we were home bound for a while. Our list consisted of canned food such as soup, chili, tuna, fruit, and veggies, pasta and sauce, bottled water, flashlights, batteries, candles, and warm coats and boots that fit were all a part of our list (and the all important hot chocolate and marshmellows!). Jack and I went outside and put covers on the faucets, brought in our patio furniture cushions and other various things that needed to be protected from the "possible" upcoming weather.

This morning as I was reading my devotions, I thought of all the considerations that we went through to prepare for this upcoming season. We planned, made a list, checked what we had and wrote down what we needed. We carefully thought it out.

And I thought about a scripture that I was reading this weekend. The pastor at the church I went to on Sunday was speaking about "you can't handle it all". He referenced the scripture Matthew 11:28-30 NLT "Come to me, all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I have given you is light."

In my last post I wrote about how I loved to hear what other people find when they read a scripture. The pastor was talking about giving our burdens over to the Lord and He will give us rest.

When I read it, because of the season I am in, the verses that jumped out at me were v28 "...come to me..." and v 29 "...Let me teach you." In the Message bible it says "...come to me. Get away with me and you will recover your life." "Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it."

We spend careful time preparing and planning for winter (which we should), getting ready for work or a party, making a grocery list, planning out meals, etc. But how much time are we allowing God to teach us? God says "let me teach you". He says "come to me". He says "watch how I do it". God wants us to prepare for each day, for the coming season by letting him teach us, by watching him, by coming to him.

I love Psalm 25:4-5. In essence is says "show me your ways, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth". This morning I was praying for each of my kids, and I found myself saying show me how to parent Madie, teach me how to parent Madie, guide me in the way to parent Madie (and saying it for each of my kids). It takes careful planning to parent children. God says "watch how I do it".

It takes planning to get all the things done in the day or week. God says, "let me teach you". How often have I made list after list, planned my day with a hour by hour schedule, planned the weeks worth of meals down to which day we were eating which dinner? I spend so much time making list, preparing and doing and checking over my list to see if I can cross anything out. I love crossing things off my list! Sometimes I will write down things I did that weren't on my list just so I could cross it off!

Sometimes the end of my day comes and I sit down to catch a breath and I hear God say, "did you come to me today? Did you let me teach you? Did you watch how I did it?" And I have to confess that I didn't take the time. I didn't carefully plan out my day with God. I didn't carefully prepare for something by watching how God did it. I want to be a student of the Lord. I want to read scripture and watch how He does it and do it that way.

This is why I have been such an advocate lately of memorizing scripture. I want to understand what God wrote down, because it is the way we come to him. It is the way He teaches us. This book that has the instructions, the Bible, it has it all in there. It says how I should navigate through my day. It tells me that I am loved. It says that God created me just how he planned. It says that he carefully and intricately planned out my life ahead of time. He prepared me for this season. It says so in the bible. I wonder if he sat down and made a list of the way he wanted to create us. I wonder if he made a list of how the gifts and talents each of us would have and what he hoped we would do with them. I do know that he carefully planned out each of us and our lives.

Now He wants us to trust him, read his word, believe what he says, and let him teach us. But first we have to go to him. We have to "get away with Him".

Get away the God today and ask him to teach you.

Love, Teresa