Take My Yoke Upon You
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me. For I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
The hustle and bustle of today’s life tends to wear us all down. When you are weary, grieving, sad or depressed, or maybe you’re overworked and just plain tired, are you the type that wants to be distracted, so you talk and talk and talk? Or are you the type that just wants to be left alone? You don’t want to say anything and you don’t want anyone to say anything to you either?
We all have a tendency to look to other people, or places to help us during our time of need, and use God as a last resort. But, it’s times such as these that we all need Jesus. Jesus was a doctor of the body and soul and He knew how to amazingly minister to those who were heavily burdened. But God is telling us that He is our first and only option to find true rest for our weary souls.
Jesus gives us the invitation is to “COME, TAKE AND LEARN”.
COME – Jesus’ first words are filled with gentleness, and yet also with power. He didn’t say Go… He said Come. Go can give you a sense of going alone, being alone. But Jesus knew that we would need to be by His side so that He could be a comforter, like a mother comforts a child.
What will you find when you go to Christ? You will find rest. You’ll find a special healing for your soul. When you want to say, “I can’t take another step! I can’t go on!” But we do. We endure more than we could ever imagine. Jesus has promised you rest. But the first step is that you have to Come.
TAKE – Sometimes we wonder why help just doesn’t seem to be coming our way. And the reason for that is because we missed that first step of actually Coming to Him. The invitation is there, and now we have to respond to it. He tells us to Take the yoke of Jesus and put it on. A yoke is a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull. The yoke makes sure that both animals are going in the same direction at the same pace. A yoke can slow them down or speed them up, but it also helps to keep them from wandering off in the wrong direction.
When we take the yoke of Jesus on us, Jesus takes one side of that yoke and controls it. He leads us. It might seem scary to let Him have control, but His gentle words, asking us to Come, takes the fear away. When you put on that yoke, you are trusting Jesus and healing begins.
LEARN – The last phrase says, “and learn from Me.” We are constantly learning lessons that God is teaching us. It’s more than just reading the Bible, although that is a big part of it, but by going to church, we learn many valuable lessons that we must take home with us and use in our day to day lives. We must apply what we have learned daily. When we learn from Him and see how He works, we need to share that yoke with others. We learn together how to do the work of the Lord by building up the body of Christ, His Church.
What qualifies you for the rest that Jesus offers? Be weak! Your weakness qualifies you for God’s rest. It will feel like a burden has been lifted from your shoulders immediately. Embrace the weakness and trust in him, then let yourself rest in Him.
Have a blessed day!
~Bev