Come to Jesus

/ Megan Wright

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to this next season and chapter called 2024! But first, check out this timely guest blog from Laci!

“The weary world rejoices.”

This is a line from my all-time favorite Christmas song, O Holy Night. The beautiful vocals and fascinating lyrics of this song get me every time. But this Christmas season, this line stuck out to me.

The 2023 Christmas season was an interesting one. It came very slowly and left so quickly. Christmas Day was a wonderful day, but something seemed off. A day of joy and celebration, and yet it was hard to feel the joy. Every year has its challenges, but recently, each year seems to beat us up and tries to knock us down, slowly but surely. And now it is nearing the end of 2023. We are all exhausted. Worn out. Tired. Broken. Out of strength. Christmas came and left already. The happiness of the season didn’t fix us. We are all still worn out, weary, and ready to call it quits.

And as a believer, feeling this way is especially difficult because of the heavy, impossible expectations that we have placed upon ourselves. We feel like we have to be strong before Jesus, that we have to come with it all together. But the good news is, Jesus wants you and me exactly as we are. It doesn’t matter if you are doing great or if you can barely keep going, and everything in between. He invites each of us to come, exactly as we are. We don’t have to have it all together. In Matthew 11:28 (NLT), Jesus makes a promise to His people, saying:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Notice how He says ALL who are weary and carry heavy burdens. Jesus invites every one of us to come to Him. He is not waiting for you to get it together before you come. He asks us to come weary. To come broken. And although it is not an easy choice to make, it is the best option. Because when we come to Him as we are and let Him love us, then we will feel stronger, feel loved, feel the hope that Jesus gives us. Abbie Gamboa says it beautifully in her song Moonflower, saying,

“I will let myself be weak, a vulnerable dependency, strong enough to let You lead me through the dark.”

This is such a beautiful line, but I’ll admit, it is not easy to do this. To let ourselves be weak before Jesus means admitting that we can’t do it on our own, and that is hard. It takes a lot to be vulnerable, but Jesus can handle our mess and our brokenness. He is not repelled by our brokenness. He is drawn to it. In my personal life, this has been the very thing that I have struggled with. In fact, recently, when I have asked Jesus to speak to me about certain things and about what I can do to serve Him best, I have heard over and over again, “Let me love you.” It takes my breath away to hear these words because it is spot on. I would consider myself to be a compassionate person, and although it is easy for me to love others and do things for others, it is very challenging for me to allow myself to be loved by others, especially when I think I don’t deserve it. So I’m on my own journey of allowing myself to be loved by the one who has always and will always love me—King Jesus. Perhaps you find yourself in a similar place of not feeling that you are worthy of being loved by Jesus. I think the best thing we can do is come to Him, broken and tired and weary, and just sit there. We don’t have to say a word. We can just sit in silence with Jesus. When I think of this, I imagine a picture of Jesus sitting next to us, His arm wrapped around us, just sitting there in the silence. That is what we get to do as believers. Just sit next to Jesus and let Him love us.

So as this year comes to an end and 2024 is just around the corner, let us remember this truth: we need Jesus. This world is broken and weary and it will only get worse, but when we give our lives to Jesus, we get an incredible blessing — a life with Him. We were not created to do life on our own. We were created to depend on Jesus. We need Him. His love, His grace, His guidance, His compassion, His peace. His joy. We cannot depend on this broken world any longer to provide any of these things. If we do, we will continue to be led astray.

2024 is not going to be perfect. In fact, it will probably be pretty similar to 2023. But although we can’t change everything that is happening around us, we can always change our perspective, the way we look at what is happening around us. And we can learn to depend on Jesus for everything we could ever need. He is our Lord, our Father, and our friend. So if nothing else, in 2024, choose to lean on the strength, the peace, and the joy offered to you by Jesus Christ. You will not be disappointed. As Deuteronomy 31:8 (NIV) puts it,

“The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

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Further Encouragement:

  • Hebrews 12:1-3
  • Psalm 8
  • Isaiah 40
  • Psalm 34
  • Psalm 126

Books I’m Loving:

Music to Tune in to:

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