“Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29.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. 30. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. When I read it, I get a picture in my mind of Jesus standing on the side of a mountain with His arms outstretched, bidding the whole world to come to Him for rest. That is a great message for this tired old world. He does not invite us to sit down and do nothing, but to find our rest in Him. Saint Augustine said: “Oh God, you made us for yourself, and we are restless until we find our rest in you.” How true this is. It is rest for our souls, the deepest part of us. When we come to Jesus, He gives us what Paul called “peace that passes all understanding.” He rids us of our fear of life and fear of death. We can go about our business daily, knowing that we are resting in the powerful arms of Jesus. All of the twelve apostles of Jesus (except Judas)underwent terrible persecutions. They willingly gave their lives as martyrs as the years went by. At least one of them, the Apostle John, lived to a ripe old age, but according to some accounts, he was martyred as well. Why were they willing to give their lives for this former carpenter that they followed for three years (THEY REALIZED THAT HE WAS MORE THAN A CARPENTER) They heard His promises, and they heard Him say that He would give rest to those who come to Him. It is not just rest in this life but rest in the life to come as well. When we are resting in Jesus, we are not afraid even of death. Besides resting in faith and confidence in Jesus, knowing that He is with us and will not forsake us, we are called to rest in His“yoke.” No doubt you know that a yoke was the instrument that was placed over the necks of oxen to lead them in the work that they were to do. When we come to Jesus, He places His yoke on us and calls us to service. One thing about the yoke that we need to know was that it enabled its owner to guide it where He wanted it to go. When we come to Jesus, He leads and guides into what He wants us to do. We can rest in that yoke, because we know that Jesus will not guide us into anything, or to anywhere, that He will not be there with us. Another thing about the yoke is that it was usually designed for at least two oxen. Jesus called us to serve Him in yoke with our fellow believers. We can rest because we know that we are not in this alone. Jesus has yoked us together to serve Him and rest in Him together. The “yoke” illustrates for us that there is no such thing as a solitary Christianity. We are all in this together, and we are, or should be, a comfort to each other. That’s right, as we rest in Jesus, we rest in fellowship with other Christians. This fellowship is very important in our service and in our sense of well-being. Jesus put us in His yoke together so that we can pray for and encourage each other. The author of Hebrews wrote this: “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting (encouraging) one another; and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24) Come to Jesus and get the soul rest that He promises you in your service together with other Christians. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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