"Come To Me!"

The first thing that comes to my mind when I here the phrase "come to me" is my crazy little Caleb. He says this all the time in a funny little voice, "Come to me my mommy. Come to me my little Jacob. Come to me!" Recently this phrase spoke to me in a life changing way. Before I left for a conference at the beginning of August I asked the Lord to speak to me and share with me the specific message He had for me. While at the conference I went into the prayer room. (Really cool!) The conference staff had prayed over each attendee's name and the Lord laid on their heart a specific name of God and a verse for each person. My verse was Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." I thought "Well, this is fitting, after all I do have 4 little boys and we do live a  busy life." Little did I know the message He "really" had in store for me. That night my precious roommate gave me a gift. It was a photograph that she had taken, framed with the verse...Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Ironic, Right? Wrong!) Still thinking this must have meant that the Lord wanted me to start taking naps, I pressed on throughout the weekend. The last morning during worship we were to walk down front and take a verse from the foot of the cross. As I walked down I prayed and asked the Lord to truly speak to me through His word and allow me to be touched and changed as a result of my time with Him. At a conference with over 600 women in attendance, I walked down front and picked up a verse. I read it on the way back to my seat and it said...Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Now maybe I'm a slow learner, but I walked away from that weekend feeling like the Lord was telling me that I did too much and I was entitled to some rest. Over the past few weeks what He has revealed to me through this verse has rocked my world. "COME TO ME!" Monica, come to me with your fears, come to me with your worries. Friend, come to me with your sickness, with your sick spouse, with your depression, with your financial struggles, with your marriage, with your children, with your strongholds, with your sins, with your what ifs. "COME TO ME!" So often we spout out in the form of a "prayer" our weariness and our burden and we long for the rest, but we miss the first part. "COME TO ME!" Jesus wants us! Jesus wants ME! He longs for us to come to Him. Are you weary? Are you burdened? Rest is found when we stop trying to carry it all and we "COME TO HIM." So often we seek His hand, not His face. We want results, whereas He wants US! That is where I found my REST! I wake up each morning and I say "Ok, God what do you have for me today?" I seek Him, I long do be with Him, I long to fellowship with Him. And I do not worry about the rest. Yes, I still have cancer; yes, there are days our finances are questionable; yes, there are days when I want to pull my hair out because I am pulled in 100 different directions; and, yes, I can rest in the midst of it all. "Come to me" is only one phrase He uses, but God desires us to approach Him. (Seek my face, follow me, worship me, approach my throne) Rest is found when we answer the call "COME TO ME!"