Two vital questions to start off 2018:
1. Have you ever come to Jesus?
2. How have you come to Jesus?

Jesus coming to us - His life, death and resurrection - have made it possible for us to enter into and live in The Kingdom of God here, now and forever.

Jesus invitation answers two very important questions.
1. They tell us what our responsibility is:
Jesus makes it clear we must choose to no longer live life apart from God and, instead, to begin living life with God.
2. They tell us specifically how we engage that responsibility:
Jesus words make it clear how we do that; what our part in that is: We must come to Him

There is an enormous difference between being active in the process of redemption through Jesus and somehow earning what only God’s grace can afford.

Having come to us Jesus calls out for us to come to Him.

We are still prone to mistakenly assume Jesus offer is to see if we can now make it to Him, to see if we can measure up and somehow work our way to Him as if He has only made it significantly easier by coming to us – by closing the distance.

Jesus did not say, “I have come all this way. You do the rest.”

It is true that the phrase Come to Me is literally a command in the structure of the original language. But in the beautiful, sovereign vulnerability and tender love of God, Jesus gives a command that can go, and often is, unheeded.

Jesus offer is not directed to those who think they have something to give in return but was and is for all those who have absolutely nothing to give in exchange; those who know they have nothing to offer Him by their coming.

Jesus commanding, pleading invitation was to come follow Him – to be yoked to Him like an Ox was yoked to its master.

What can a weary, heavy-laden, worn out, spent, depleted soul expect by coming to Jesus? His words are simple and clear. Jesus said, I will give you rest.

Jesus invitation is ultimately an invitation to an entirely new way of living life, a life where any and all who come would find rest.

We come trusting Jesus enough – believing Him enough – to actually let Him teach us how to live Life in His Kingdom. It is in coming this way that we find rest.

The Gospel – the unbelievably Good News of Jesus – is not only that we can come follow Jesus and find rest four our souls but also that we can actually start that journey exactly like we are – in the very condition in which Jesus finds us.

What does entering this kind of life require?
Coming to Jesus, exactly as you are while trusting Him enough to do life under His authority and day to day leadership.