Rest

Tired. Burdened. Worried. Weary… These are all things every human being has experienced or is currently experiencing.

This morning I woke up particularly tired and not thrilled about doing much of the same again. Then this verse came to my mind, “Come to Me… and I will give you rest.”

It can be so easy to start our day focused on ourselves with all that we have to do, or battles we have to face, difficulties of this life, and think we are in them alone. We place the burdens of this world or the struggles we are facing upon ourselves to work out on our own.

When we look at Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “come to Me” not, “work this out on your own.” When He says, “take my yoke upon you and learn from Me,” He is not speaking of an egg yolk and how to scramble eggs. The yolk in which Jesus uses as an example is a wooden contraption that was placed on oxen at their necks to work together. Without the yoke, an ox had only its own power to plow a field or pull something heavy. Yet, when yoked together, they weren’t reliant on just their own power. Yokes were also used to train a young or rowdy ox. When being yoked together with a mature ox, the younger less mature ox could learn the ways in which it needed to behave.

The day in which Jesus spoke these words, those around him could immediately make the connection in which he was speaking. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me” Jesus spoke. “For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” The yoke in which Jesus spoke of is Him taking the load and carrying our weight, because His yoke is easy and His burden is light. It is Him guiding and directing our lives  versus us taking it upon ourselves to figure out and wander.

When we choose to follow Jesus, we are disconnecting our yoke from the World’s ways of thinking and doing things, and connecting and yoking ourselves to Jesus. We are choosing to submit (a word that has been easily misunderstood and redefined as negative) to Jesus. 

The burdens of this World are heavy, worrisome, tiring. But when we yoke ourselves to Jesus, we see those burdens of the World differently because now we have been yoked to Him who is greater than all things. Greater than all our cares. Greater than our burdens, troubles, and difficulties. He is the One who is guiding and directing the ways in which we should go because we have chosen to be yoked with one Greater than ourselves.

“Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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 will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30