Jesus will give you rest
Matthew 11:28-30 Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for our souls, for My yoke is easy and my load is light.
The weight of the law given to the Israelites was heavy. There were many rules they had to remember and keep perfectly. There were many ceremonies and traditions they had to perform each year with the priests to make themselves clean (or acceptable) before God.
When Jesus died on the cross, He changed all that. His death satisfies God FOR us (Matthew 5:17). This means when God looks at us, if we believe on Jesus Christ, He sees the perfection of Jesus and not our sins (1John 2:2). This is why Jesus says, “Come to me… my burden is light.” In other words, when we believe on Jesus, we no longer are required to be perfect to get into heaven (something that’s impossible anyway). We are only required to believe on Him – and when we do, we naturally are tempted to sin less and less as we realize all that He’s done for us.
Activity: Place a reasonable amount of books inside a backpack. Have each child take turns putting it on their back and doing a lap around the first floor of your home, running a certain distance, or going up and down a flight of stairs. The idea is to get them to understand the weight of carrying around something we can take off….
Have them take it off and perform the activity again. Explain that Jesus wants to take our burdens from us, including our sin. He wants to carry the backpack for us. When we feel weighed down by life, we can pray and tell God we want Him to carry the weight for us.
