Take His Yoke Upon You

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle 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 ESV)

Many of us are going through trials and tribulations and difficult circumstances which test our faith, and which may trouble our minds and hearts and bring us to tears and move us to call out to God in our distress, which then move us to pray for his intervention in our trying times. For some people in the world, what they are going through is enormous! It is tragic beyond words, and I grieve for them and what they are going through.

By comparison with what many people in the world are suffering who are suffering greatly at the hands of their enemies, our suffering may appear minute. But that doesn’t make it less for us. It is still hard to go through such difficult times, and so we feel the hurt and the pain and the suffering, some of us daily. But the Lord says to bring our burdens to him, to come to him with our burdens, and he will give us rest (inward peace in suffering).

But what does it mean to come to Christ? It means that we must deny self, die daily to sin, and follow our Lord Jesus in obedience to his commands. It means we must forsake our former lives of living in sin and for self, and we must now follow our Lord in obedience to his will for our lives. He must now be Lord and Master of our lives, and we must now let him be the one in control, and then we must yield to his control over our lives and do his will.

[Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 5:16-21; Galatians 6:7-8; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Hebrews 10:23-31; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10]   

And this is the only way we are going to find rest in all our trials and tribulations. For we can’t just call on his name and then expect him to do what we want. We must be those whose lives are surrendered to him to do his will and who are listening to him and who are following him wherever he leads us. And then we must also accept his sovereignty over our lives and yield to his will, even if it means more suffering for us.

For the peace and rest that he gives us is not necessarily via the absence of conflict, but in spite of the conflict. We can be at peace and at rest within our minds and hearts even if all hell is breaking loose all around us. And this isn’t saying that we won’t feel fear, but that our Lord, if we trust him with our circumstances, will help us to overcome that fear and to respond in faith despite what is going on in our lives.

But we have to take his yoke upon us. We have to do what he says to do and to go where he goes and to not fight against him and to not try to do it our way. For this involves submission to Christ as Lord and surrender to his will for our lives, even if that will is that we suffer for the sake of his name and for the sake of his gospel, and for the sake of his truth and righteousness and holiness. When we yield control to God, we are at peace.

And the reason that his yoke is easy and his burden is light is because we are giving the weight of what we are going through over to him and we are not carrying that burden on our shoulders alone. For we are resting in him and we are letting him lead us in the way that he would have us to go despite our difficult circumstances. For it is kind of like a book I read a long time ago called, “Feel the Fear But Do it Anyway.”

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Video Talk

https://youtu.be/Y6cupFkbNLc

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Rest for the Weary  

An Original Work / April 23, 2011

Based off of Matthew 11:28-30

Rest for the weary; 

peace for the soul.

Light in the darkness; 

mercy untold.

Perfect salvation; 

pardoned and free,

For Jesus died 

so that all may believe.

While we are waiting 

for Your return,

Jesus, Redeemer, 

let our hearts yearn

For your soon coming 

to get Your bride,

Washed in Your blood, 

having been sanctified.

Father, Son, Spirit, 

all three in One

Giveth salvation 

through redemption.

Jesus provided 

the sacrifice

For our sins blood bought, 

for He paid the price.

https://vimeo.com/117068847