“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.” – Jesus (Matthew 11:28 NIV)
If you feel like the load He has asked you to carry is too heavy for you to bear, it probably is, but it’s not too heavy for Him. It’s not His intention for you to carry it alone, He wants to carry it with you. Notice in the picture of the oxen, the yoke is across both of their shoulders, so neither one is carrying the full load. Jesus knows life can be hard. He understands that we feel crushed under the weight of it from time to time, so He invites us to come to Him when we are tired. And when we come, He gives us rest.
Sometimes we’re carrying the wrong load, a load He did not hand us, and did not intend for us to bear, a load we’ve picked up on our own. Imagine that! We are crushed under the weight of it, tired and struggling to keep moving forward, and it’s not even a load He’s asked us to bear. I’m convinced that many of the burdens I carry around are of my own making. I cry out to Jesus in despair, “Lord, why is this so hard, it’s crushing me, can’t you see that?” And He replies, “This problem is of your own making, you’re putting yourself through this.” That’s why we need to come to Him, take His yoke and learn from Him.
I am so thankful that He is gentle and humble in heart. When I find I’m crushed under a load that I shouldn’t be carrying, I come to Him and find rest, not rebuke! I find compassion and acceptance. He takes the time to teach me, to gently open my eyes so I can see the situation from His perspective. He gives me insight and shows me where I went wrong. He lifts the burden off of my shoulders and allows me to wear His yoke. Then he takes the other side and walks beside me, sharing the weight. I find His yoke to be easy and His burden to be light when I’m partnered with Him and carrying the load He has given me.
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens. Psalm 68:19 NIV
At one time, I thought that being yoked with Him meant that I would have almost no load to carry and He would do all the real work.
As I have aged, I have learned that it is my privilege to bear all of the load possible, so that I will understand His Love and appreciate His care for me.
If I bear none of the load, I will not learn what the load truly is.
Now I can understand “Bear one another’s burden and so fulfill the law of Christ”
As He is yoked to me to provide strength in my weakness, so I am yoked to my siblings in Christ to supply strength for them as they need.