If you are like most than you are struggling.  You may be struggling to make ends meet.  You may be struggling to keep your marriage together.  You may be struggling to make sense of pain and hardship.  You may be struggling in an addiction.  Take a moment and consider what you are struggling with, struggling in, or struggling through and, now, listen to the words of Jesus.

“Come to me, all 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.”

 What if this statement were true?  What if Jesus were to call you to Him and and asked you to hand over all of your struggles, all of your burdens, all that keeps you up at night, and all that keeps you in bed in the morning?  Can you imagine being released from all that weighs on your shoulders, weighs on your mind, and weighs on your soul.  You, likely, have lived so long under the pressure of all that is expected of you and from you that you can’t even ponder what that might feel like.  To be relieved of carrying it on your own.  To be freed from trying on your own.

This is the message of the Gospel.  The good news that your life can go from one of laboring to one of resting, from one of anxiety to one of confidence, from one of fear to one of hope, from one of trying to one of trusting.  Jesus desires to take all that is weighing you down, breaking your back, and aching your joints and give you rest.  Rest in His grace, mercy, compassion, loving-kindness, and forgiveness.  This is what Perry Community Church is about.  Inviting people into the rest of Jesus because you have trusted in the work of Jesus.  “Come… and find rest for your souls”

Pastor Andrew Rudisill