Find Rest
“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.”
We are reading the book of Matthew before bed with my 9 year old and I need to admit something. I keep learning from CHILDREN'S Bibles. Am I allowed to say that? I work for a church for crying out loud. Shouldn't I have gotten it by now?
But then you and I both breathe a sigh of relief because NO ONE knows it all, thank God. Let's get off the Gotta Look Perfect Train. It wasn't going anywhere to begin with. From the Most-Studied to the Ought-To-Have-Known-It-By-Nows - there is always grace, always room for new learning. And we recall that God's word is always producing a new crop of understanding - fresh fruit for our faith. It goes out and does not come back empty-handed. "My word shall not return empty to me...." - Isaiah 55:11
After reading the above Matthew message from Jesus, all yokes and rest and light burdens, my son snickered, "Yoke? Egg yoke? What does that mean?!"
And we laughed thinking about Jesus giving us yellow-milky yokes to wear around town....and then we looked to see what was behind it all. Here's what we read:
A yoke is worn by a team! And Jesus offers us to be yoked with Him. He will work with us, side by side, He will share the load of what is before us. He says His burden - His yoke - is light and easy. And He says there is rest with His yoke.
Who needs some rest? Anybody? Anyone feeling weary? Heavy-laden? Needing rest for our very soul? No one, then? Liars. You're ALL liars. I know ZERO people who are feeling rested.
So what do we do? He gives us three verbs: Come. Take. Learn.
And from these simple steps toward Jesus, what does He do? Gives Rest. Ease. Lighter loads.
I'm coming and taking and learning.....and looking forward to resting, easing up, and lighter loads. You're welcome to join me. My coming and taking and learning looks like silence and writing down all that is my load and reading more of His words as I learn more of Him.
And in that carved out space, things are lighter, easier and I am resting.
It's the stopping to come, to take and to learn that is much harder than I thought. It takes so much strength to stop. So much reigning in of ALL the thoughts and lists and demands.
God, give us strength to stop.
Here's today's Freebie Friday - to remind us that we have a King that LOVES when we come to Him and take His yoke and learn from Him. He's got rest up His sleeves for you and me. Subscribe and grab the password (save for more printables) and enjoy!
