This is not an advertisement for a new supplement or exercise plan. It's better and absolutely fool-proof.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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)
All of us long for the rest Jesus promises. But notice the surprising, counter-culture pathway to this rest. Our pathway is found in the verbs.
""COME unto Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden."" (vs. 28)
It is our responsibility to come. We are not to come to a program or to a new human plan. We are to come to Jesus. Nowhere else and no one else can accomplish this.
Very few people do. Many come to the idea of Jesus, or to thoughts about Jesus, but not to Him in personal experience.
""To most people God is an inference, not a reality. He is a deduction from evidence which they consider adequate; but He remains personally unknown to the individual."" (A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God)
Tozer goes on to say that God is a personality. He made us in His image and He is One who can be known.
If we are to find rest we must find HIM. We must go to any lengths to encounter Him and we will find that God was waiting to be encountered.
""TAKE my yoke upon you and LEARN from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart."" (vs. 29)
He does not tell us to devise a new human system to get rest, or to ask Jesus to join us in our yoke (referring to the double yoke of oxen). We are to join HIM. To take His yoke upon us. And then we are to learn from Him. We are to listen to Him and fully cooperate with His movements. He is the lead in this yoke. If He turns to the right or left we are to simply follow.
When we do this, all pressure is gone. All decision-making is relegated to His side of the yoke. All stress evaporates when we are no longer in charge.
""and I will give you rest."" (vs. 28)
""and you will find rest for your souls for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."" (VS. 29)
Notice that rest is a gift given. It's not achieved through our striving. Our one work is to lay aside everything and come to Jesus. To remain in the yoke, listening to and following Him. If we will do this, He promises us rest as a blessed gift.
Lord Jesus, let me join You this morning. Reveal Yourself to Me. Let me come to You. I gladly take your yoke upon myself. I long today to simply listen and learn from You, following Your prompting and leadership all day long. And thank you for giving me rest!""
