28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
These are some very familiar words to those who are Jesus-followers. And yet, how many of us feel burdened or weary in our spiritual walk? Since we do feel burdened and weary, whose load are we carrying? Jesus promised rest. His burden will not make us weary. His is light. I think the problem is that we have not really taken on His yoke. We are not willing to be truly connected to Him. We still want to go our own way at times. We want our freedom. But being yoked means that we give up the right to go our own way. It is like the oath of office that soldiers take “to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.” They give up the right to chose to move with their unit. When the orders come, they must go or face the dire consequences. And when we are connected to Him, we learn His ways. His ways are easy and light. He is gentle and humble in heart. He does not bowl us over with His demands. He has an Individual Development Plan for each of us. He knows we are handicapped by sin. He knows we are broken and struggling. One of the things I have had to learn over the years of pastoring and counseling is the necessary art of leaving other’s burdens at work. I can’t carry their loads. I must let them go, or I become overwhelmed. I think we often feel weary and burdened when we are carrying something that is not ours to carry. We must learn to give those burdens to those who are supposed to carry them. We can’t pick up and carry what someone else is supposed to carry. Those loads will crush us. We must learn from Jesus exactly what to carry and what to pass on to others. It can be hard to do. But the more we allow ourselves to be yoked to Him and be discipled by Him, the more peace we will experience.
The Arnold Journey 