What's On Your Mind '09 - Easy Yoke

Matthew 11:28-30 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”


The question this week's challenge is how do you put Matthew 11:28-30 in practice in your own life?


I think learning to come to the Lord and give Him our burdens is a process. It's natural when things come our way to think that we can solve things on our own. In our human pride, we want to think we are smart enough to come up with a solution. After all, why bother God with it, it's a small thing that we should be able to handle.

So, after trying to handle things on our own and messing up, we then go to God and ask for help. A few times of this and hopefully the light goes off in our brain -- why not ask Him for help at the beginning?

What is a yoke anyway? I looked it up and yoke has several meanings, but the one that refers to a person is the one I think relevant here: "a frame fitted to a person's shoulders to carry a load in two equal portions " (Merriam Webster). God never meant for you to carry too heavy a load alone. Bring it to Him and He will take it in exchange for a lighter one.

For me, I think the biggest challenge of putting this passage into practice in my own life is to hand my burden to God and then step back and keep my hands off it. Give it to God and then not worry ... That's hard to do! When satan reminds me the problem is still there, the best thing to do would be to say, "I've given it to God, in His timing He will work it out." I may have to say that a hundred times a day, but eventually that old snake will leave me alone.

Another point that I think worth mentioning about this passage: When I insist on doing things my way, often it becomes a heavy burden. An example of this is when someone asks me to be in charge of something, and because of pride, I just agree to it without asking Him first. Then when I feel overworked or overwhelmed and complain about it, He could say, "I never told you to do that in the first place!" However, if the Lord impresses me that He wants me to be doing God's work, something He has called me to do, I'll have rest (peace about it) and a light burden because He equips me to do the work.

It all comes down to am I spending enough time with God? If I'm drawing near to Him, He draws near to me: therefore, I'll be better able to hear His voice, guiding me as to which burden He wants me to carry. He'll only give me a light burden - what I'm capable of carrying. I'll be the first to say that I need to work on this. It is indeed a process!

What about you? How do you apply this passage of scripture to your own life? Join in at Shane's Heart Reflections and share.