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Come unto Me

Personal daily study · 10–20 minutes a day

  • Week 11
  • 📅 Mar 8–14, 2027
  • 📖 Matthew 11–12; Luke 11
Start with Monday
This week’s readingMatthew 11–12; Luke 11 in Gospel LibraryCome, Follow Me manualNew Testament 2027, week 11
🧭 This week

This week’s reading gathers people who come to Jesus with something: John with a question from prison, the weary with their burdens, a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, critics demanding a sign, and disciples asking, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Jesus answers each one differently, but always in character: gentle with the bruised reed, direct with the proud, generous with those who ask. His invitation runs through it all: “Come unto me … and I will give you rest.” Read this week noticing what you are bringing to Him, and how He answers.

Key verse

Luke 11:13 ↗
“If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?”
In plain words: If imperfect parents know how to give good gifts, our perfect Father is even more willing to give His Spirit to anyone who asks Him.

Day by day

Monday to Saturday read the week’s block a piece at a time; Sunday looks back over the week. Tap a reference to open it in Gospel Library.

Monday · 15 min

Art Thou He?

Read todayMatthew 11:1–19

Herod had imprisoned John the Baptist (Matthew 14:3), and from his cell John sends disciples to ask, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?” (11:3). The text doesn’t say whether the question was for John’s own sake or for his disciples’. Jesus answers with what they can see and hear, in words that echo Isaiah’s prophecies of the Messiah (Isaiah 35:5–6; 61:1), and adds, “blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me” (11:6): whoever does not stumble over Him. Then He honors John publicly, not a reed shaken by the wind but “more than a prophet” (11:9). Finally He describes a generation that rejected John as too severe and Jesus as too friendly with sinners.

🤔 Ponder
  • What sincere question would I send to the Savior, and where might He point me for an answer?
  • When have His ways surprised my expectations? What kept me from stumbling?
  • Am I ever like the children in the marketplace, finding fault with every messenger the Lord sends?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Write a question you’ve carried for a while. Then write what you have seen and heard of the Savior that helps you keep trusting while you wait.

✨ Try this todayTake one sincere question to the Lord in prayer today, and watch for evidence of His work around you as you go.
Tuesday · 15 min

Take My Yoke

Read todayMatthew 11:20–30

Jesus mourns over Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, towns near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee that saw His mighty works and still didn’t repent (11:20–24). Then He thanks His Father that these things are hidden from “the wise and prudent” and revealed “unto babes” (11:25). And then the invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (11:28). A yoke joined two animals so they could pull together. Jesus doesn’t promise to remove every load; He offers His own yoke and describes Himself as “meek and lowly in heart” (11:29), which the footnote renders gentle and humble. His burden is light because He carries it with us.

🤔 Ponder
  • What is making me weary right now, and have I actually brought it to Him?
  • What would it mean for me to learn of Him this week, not only to lean on Him?
  • How have my covenants yoked me to the Savior, and how has that changed the weight I carry?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Write down the burden that feels heaviest this week, then write what it would look like to carry it yoked with the Savior.

✨ Try this todayName one burden in prayer today and ask the Savior specifically to pull with you. Then help lighten someone else’s load.
Wednesday · 15 min

Lord of the Sabbath

Read todayMatthew 12:1–21

Hungry disciples pluck grain on the Sabbath, and Pharisees call it unlawful (12:1–2). Their tradition, later written down in the Mishnah, counted reaping and threshing among thirty-nine kinds of forbidden work. Jesus answers with scripture: David ate the shewbread when he was hungry (1 Samuel 21:1–6), priests work in the temple on the Sabbath, and God desires mercy more than sacrifice (12:7). Then, in the synagogue, He heals a withered hand and declares, “it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days” (12:12). When the Pharisees plot against Him, He withdraws, and Matthew quotes Isaiah: “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench” (12:20; Isaiah 42:3).

🤔 Ponder
  • What sign am I giving the Lord with the way I spend His day?
  • Have I turned the Sabbath into a list of rules, or a day of rest and doing good?
  • Where in my life am I a bruised reed or a smoking wick? How has the Savior treated that part of me?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Describe what a good Sabbath would look like for you right now: restful, worshipful and good for someone else.

✨ Try this todayPlan one act of doing good for this coming Sunday, and put it on your calendar today.
Thursday · 20 min

Out of the Abundance of the Heart

Read todayMatthew 12:22–50

When Jesus heals a man who is blind and cannot speak, some Pharisees claim He casts out devils by Beelzebub. He answers that a house divided cannot stand, and that He has bound the strong man (12:25–29). Then He teaches that a tree is known by its fruit, and that our words reveal our hearts: “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (12:34). Critics ask for a sign, and He points to Jonas: three days in the belly of the whale, as the Son of man would be three days in the heart of the earth (12:40). He warns about a house swept clean but left empty (12:43–45). And He names His true family: whoever does the will of His Father (12:50).

🤔 Ponder
  • What do my words this week reveal about the abundance of my heart?
  • Have I cleaned something out of my life without filling the space with something good?
  • What does it mean to me to be counted as the Savior’s family by doing His Father’s will?

🔗 Cross-references

  • Jonah 1:17 ↗Jonah’s three days and nights in the fish, the sign Jesus says points to His own death and Resurrection.
  • Luke 6:45 ↗A good person brings forth good out of the good treasure of the heart.
  • Alma 12:14 ↗Alma teaches that our words, our works and even our thoughts will be part of our judgment.
✍️ Journal

Write down three things you said yesterday. What do they tell you about what is filling your heart?

✨ Try this todayFill one empty space today with something good: replace a habit you’ve let go of with scripture, service or prayer.
Friday · 15 min

Teach Us to Pray

Read todayLuke 11:1–13

The disciples watched Jesus pray, and when He finished, one of them asked, “Lord, teach us to pray” (11:1). Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than Matthew’s. Then Jesus tells of a man who knocks on a friend’s door at midnight, not for himself but to feed an unexpected guest, and who receives what he needs because of his “importunity” (11:8), a word that suggests bold, shameless persistence. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (11:9). If imperfect parents give good gifts, “how much more” will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask (11:13). Of all the gifts He could have named, He names the Spirit.

🤔 Ponder
  • What have I learned about prayer by watching someone else pray?
  • Whom am I knocking for, the way the friend at midnight knocked for his guest?
  • Do I ask for the Holy Spirit as often as I ask for other things?

🔗 Cross-references

✍️ Journal

Write a prayer asking specifically for the Holy Spirit’s help with one situation. Afterward, note what you felt.

✨ Try this todayKnock for someone else today: pray by name for a person who needs help, and ask what you can do for them.
Saturday · 15 min

Clean Within

Read todayLuke 11:14–54

Luke 11 continues with a house divided, the sign of Jonas, and light: “when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light” (11:34). A woman calls out a blessing on Jesus’s mother, and He answers, “Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it” (11:28). Then a Pharisee invites Him to dinner and is surprised that He didn’t wash first. Jesus speaks about cleaning the outside of the cup while the inside stays full of wickedness (11:39). He doesn’t condemn tithing garden herbs; He condemns passing over “judgment and the love of God” (11:42). And He rebukes lawyers who “lade men with burdens grievous to be borne” and won’t lift a finger to help (11:46).

🤔 Ponder
  • Am I keeping the outside of the cup polished while neglecting the inside?
  • Do I ever add burdens to others, at home or in a calling, without helping to carry them?
  • What would it look like to keep both the small commandments and “judgment and the love of God”?

🔗 Cross-references

  • Alma 60:23 ↗Moroni teaches that the inward vessel must be cleansed first, and then the outer vessel.
  • 1 Samuel 16:7 ↗People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
  • Galatians 6:2 ↗Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
✍️ Journal

Write about one outward habit you keep well, and one inward attitude you want the Lord to help you clean.

✨ Try this todayLift a finger for someone today: help carry one practical burden for a family member or neighbor.
Sunday · 15 min

Rest unto Your Souls

Read todayMatthew 11:28–30

Return to the Savior’s invitation and read it slowly, a phrase at a time. “Come unto me” is addressed to all who labor and are heavy laden. The rest He promises isn’t idleness; it comes while wearing a yoke, joined to Him and learning from Him. Set it beside what you read this week: burdens grievous to be borne, a Sabbath turned into a list of rules, a faithful prophet in prison. Against all of that, the Savior is gentle and humble, and His burden is light. The sacrament is a weekly renewal of that yoke. As you take the bread and water today, bring Him your heaviest burden by name.

🤔 Ponder
  • Which phrase, “Come unto me,” “Take my yoke” or “learn of me,” do I most need this week?
  • What does rest “unto your souls” mean to me, beyond a day off?
  • How can today’s sacrament be a real renewal of being yoked with Him?

🔗 Cross-references

  • Moroni 10:32 ↗Moroni’s closing invitation: come unto Christ, and be perfected in Him.
  • Jeremiah 6:16 ↗Walk in the good way, and ye shall find rest for your souls: the phrase Jesus echoes in Matthew 11:29.
  • Doctrine and Covenants 59:9 ↗On the Lord’s holy day we offer up our sacraments and keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
✍️ Journal

Write the burden you brought to the sacrament today, and what you felt or decided as you took the bread and water.

✨ Try this todayInvite someone who seems weary to come with you to something that brings rest: a walk, a meal, church or the temple.

From general conference

“That the yoke is easy and the burden is light presumes we get in the yoke with the Savior, that we share our burdens with Him, that we let Him lift our load.”

— President Camille N. Johnson, “Jesus Christ Is Relief,” April 2023

Read on Tuesday after Matthew 11:28–30, or on Sunday before the sacrament.

Read the talk ↗

Sources

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, the Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Start with the scriptures and the official Come, Follow Me manual; these notes are here to help you study.

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