My Yoke Is Easy

“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)

Meditation

Have you ever felt like you carry the weight of the world on your shoulders? You scurry from one thing to another, all the time feeling like there’s no end to the toil. Your life, at times, is filled with busyness that often has little value or meaning. Sometimes, you’re just busy for the sake of being busy. However, this scripture is only partly referring to physical busyness. It’s also talking about spiritual busyness.

Even if you don’t believe in God, you are still in the midst of a spiritual struggle. The struggle is for your very soul. You are caught between the spirit of darkness of this world and the spirit of the light of truth of Jesus. You struggle to find meaning for your life when this world can only offer you a few pleasures, which are temporary, or disappointments and unfaithfulness. You struggle to fill an empty hole in your heart that nothing of this world can fill. The devil will constantly make your burdens even heavier. To the feelings of meaninglessness and emptiness, he adds the burdens of heartbreak and betrayal.

Once we come to Christ, the devil will pile on the burden of guilt for past sins to convince us we’re not worthy to be saved. All those troubles we carry can be just as taxing and burdensome as physical labor. Jesus didn’t come into the world to put more on our shoulders but to take our burdens away. If we truly believe in him, then why would we continue to carry that load? If we truly trust in him, then why aren’t we giving him all our troubles? If we truly love him, then we know that he has forgiven our past, taken our burdens, and wants us to rest in him.

This is the time of the year when many of us are feeling a great weight on our shoulders. We can’t seem to work long or hard enough to get everything done. We’re planning holiday parties, buying gifts, preparing food, working overtime, wrapping presents… The list goes on and on, but those burdens are self-imposed. In our haste to get everything done, we forget why this holiday exists at all. We overlook that baby lying in the manger and only see our own burdens. We need to be reminded of his purpose for coming. No, it wasn’t to make our lives a trouble-free walk in the park. He came to save our souls and to lighten the burdens of our hearts.

It’s not just this time of year when we’re burdened. The Lord Jesus wants you to give him all your burdens and trust him for relief. I know from personal experience that the Lord is faithful to make our burdens easier. That doesn’t mean God will fix whatever is wrong is your life. It does mean he will be with you until the challenge is met. Jesus is not a comic book super hero who swoops in to save the day, but he will give your heart peace about whatever happens. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been saved for only a day or your whole life. He will be faithful to lighten your loads if you give them to him.

Thankfully he is gentle and not arrogant with us when we first come to him in repentance. In the first few years of belief we wrestle with letting go of our past lives. I know I struggled for quite some time with escaping old habits, but he was patient with me. If a yoke is put on a beast of burden to pull a heavy load, how can we possibly put on the Lord’s yoke and somehow find rest? Jesus is the only one who can teach us what restful peace is. God gave us the greatest gift of peace for all time, when he sent his Son. It’s a no-brainer for us to trust Jesus with our troubles now.

Prayer Time

Heavenly Father we bow to your magnificence and holiness. We cannot imagine life without you anymore. We used to walk in darkness, not knowing where to find happiness. We only added to the burdens of life with our fruitless attempts at filling a hole in our heart that can only be filled with your love. It didn’t take long before we felt like we were carrying more than we could bear. We thank you, Lord, for lifting the weights of the world off our shoulders when we turned our lives over to you. You take all our burdens upon you, which allows our minds to be put at ease. However, it’s hard for us to understand that you will always be with us in the midst of our troubles, so we don’t think to bring them to you in the first place. We ask for your patience, Lord, as we continue to abide in you. Once we give our burdens up to you, we can be sure you will not add to our problems. Thank you, Lord, for how easy it is to be a follower of Jesus Christ, and for that peace of mind. In his name, Amen!