Okay, this is getting a bit ridiculous (in a good way). It’s probably happened to you before (if you’ve been a follower of Christ for very long, you know God works overtime to get our attention), but I keep seeing the same Scripture passage popping up just about everywhere it seems I could be exposed to the Bible:
Matthew 11:28-30
28Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Yes, I blogged on this one at the end of June. I preached on it while presenting the devotional at the soup kitchen shortly afterward. Since then, I’ve seen it pop up in sermons I’ve heard at church and on the radio, saw it posted in our associational newsletter, used in the funeral I attended yesterday, and tonight, in the devotional we’ve been using with our kids. I’m almost certain I’ve noticed it in other places as well.
So I admit, to all of you who read this… I need peace and rest in my walk with Christ right now. I’ve prayed for it over and over, yet I honestly feel as if I’m getting nothing. Everything related to my faith continues to be a struggle, and I don’t have any real answers as to why.
Maybe one of you has the answer. Maybe I know it, but don’t realize it. Maybe God hasn’t revealed it yet, and is waiting for the appropriate time. Maybe my prayers and pleas weren’t truly from the heart, and He’s still waiting on me to run to Him.
I don’t know.
Whatever the case, I’m weary and burdened right now, and I need the peace and rest promised in these Scriptures.
John,
I don’t want to come across as if I have arrived, and I know anything more about this than you. But, that being said,
I will share a few insights I believe God has given me into this passage.
1. A “yoke” is generally used to join two working animals together. The image I see here is that, in the midst of the burdens of everyday life, Jesus is there at our side, carrying the burdens together with us.
2. While He is there at our side, He is teaching us important practical lessons for the journey. These lessons have to do with being “gentle and humble in heart.” The implication is that a lot of the stress and weariness in our lives comes as a result of our own obstinance and pride. For example, when a new working animal, say an ox or a mule, is being broken in, the more he bucks, the more weary he is at the end of the day. The animal who goes along with the “program” of his Master is the one that is going to find “rest.” He will still be tired. Because work makes us tired. But it is a “good kind” of tired.
3. Hebrews 3 & 4 teaches that we enter into the “rest of the Lord” by faith. He offers us that rest as a gift, but just like we receive the gift of eternal salvation by faith, we must enter into that rest on a day-to-day basis by faith.
Sometimes, when we walk by faith, the unseen reality does not seem to square with what we are seeing. Just like an airplane pilot in the midst of a cloud, though, we have to learn to trust the controls, and not what the things we are seeing and feeling on the outside might lead us to believe.
I will pray for you that God’s strength and encouragement will be sufficient for you during this “stretch” of feeling weary and burdened.
BTW, thanks for your openness and servant heart. You are a blessing to me.
Blessings,
David
David,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
It’s interesting, I used points 1 and 2 you’ve given here almost word for word when I preached from this passage three weeks ago. As I was sharing with a friend just a few days back, to some extent, I feel like I know the answers to some of the questions here (at least intellectually), but my heart still feels tired and burdened, and rest seems almost to be a distant dream.
Thanks for pointing me to Hebrews 3 and 4. In reading through them briefly tonight, I can see I need to think and pray through these in depth over the next couple of days.