Rest for the Weary

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

Are you weary? Burdened?

Are you living under a weight of worry? Or under the high expectations of someone—maybe yourself? While we are scrambling about trying to do all we need to do in life—and do it right—Jesus is holding out his hand in invitation to us, saying, “Hey, there’s a better way to live!” We don’t need to live burdened down with our long to-do lists, our high expectations, our in-your-face worries, our nagging mistakes, our beckoning goals, etc., etc. Jesus invites us to yoke ourselves with him and find rest.

What does that mean?

In the olden days, cattle, mules, or horses were yoked together to do hard labor. Two oxen could do more field work than one. Jesus says that if we yoke ourselves with him, we will find someone pulling with us who is gentle and humble in heart. Someone who is kind who shares in our labors. Someone who truly cares about our well-being. Some who is not going to be a task-master.

At the end of a hard day in the field, those oxen would be tired. Jesus said if we yoke ourselves with him, we will ‘find rest for our souls.’ But note that we come under his yoke, not the other way around.

Come to me!

Jesus first says, “Come to me.” We don’t demand him to come to us to help us do our overwhelming jobs. Our attitude should never be “Look at all I have to do! Help me, dang it!” Instead Jesus asks us to come to him. “Learn from me,” he says. We come to him. We come under his yoke. For God to invite us to labor with him is truly amazing. What a humble God he is to invite us to be yoked with him to work with him! It also takes some humility on our part to get under that yoke with him—to let go of our own stuff and choose to pull the load with him. But when we come into that place, we learn how very much he loves us, how much he cares for us, how delighted he is that we would desire to partner with him! What is burdensome about working with one such as that?

Don’t lose focus.

But we tend to forget about the humble, gentle lover of our souls inviting us to walk yoked with him. We slip back into religious “work mode” and get burdened and weary. We forget that Jesus is a person who invites us into intimacy with him. Today, take some time to stop. Close your eyes and make the choice to lay your burden down and join Jesus under his yoke. Connect your heart to his. Receive the rest that he brings to your soul.

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