Rest Awhile

“Come unto Me, all ye that are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

Wouldn’t it be great to close your eyes and have all your problems and burdens disappear?  Life is hard.  It doesn’t get any easier as one grows older.  Actually as difficult as life can be when one is young, age has a way of making things even more difficult.  One doesn’t have the energy, stamina, or incentives that one had as a young adult.  For some older folks, there is not much in life to look forward to except heaven for those who know Christ.  Sometimes we just get tired of the daily grind.  Even though we try to remain positive about life, some days it is difficult to get out of bed because we don’t know what we will face that day.  When we look to this sin-cursed world to bring us happiness, we find that a lost cause because the world has no power to bring happiness, peace, or a reprieve from our problems.

Many folks say that living the Christian life is difficult.  It’s not difficult, it’s impossible!  We don’t live the Christian life–Jesus lives His life through us.  We can’t work and strive to be righteous.  We come to Christ, give Him our sins, our burdens and problems, and in exchange He give us His righteousness and a hope for the future.  Therefore we can rest because Christ has done all the work necessary to make us right before God.  When we know that we have been accepted by a holy and righteous God, we are far ahead of those who are striving to fill that longing for acceptance and peace by their own efforts.  Regardless of our circumstances, to know that our sins are forgiven and that we are declared “not guilty” before God brings a peace and a joy that cannot be found any other way.

A physical yoke is a wooden bar which joins two work animals, like oxen, so that they can work in tandem.  In our day, we don’t see that many oxen, but we are all familiar with cowboy movies that show a team of horses pulling a wagon or a stagecoach.  They are yoked together so that they can move in the same direction to accomplish their master’s task.  Without that yoke, they would all want to go in different directions and the wagon would go no where.  Being spiritually yoked to Christ keeps us in tandem with Him and in the way we should go as we faithfully serve Him.  Without that attachment to Him, we would go off in all directions and likely get into some serious trouble.

As we walk with Him, we learn His ways and discover that He is not a hard taskmaster, but a Friend who loves us and wants the best for us.  Jesus’ yoke keeps us safe and secure, and whatever He asks us to do, He will give us the ability to do.  In that we can rest completely and confidently.