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'Christ in You...'
by Dale Krebbs
How can one rest under a burden, and a yoke? When one needs rest, having a "burden" AND a "yoke" seems like a contradiction of reality.
At the very most it would seem very temporary. In addition, the longer the burden and yoke remains on you, the less restful it would be. Anything resembling a yoke would, at best, eventually become anything but restful. Yokes and burdens are for pack animals, cattle and such. Certainly a human would consider any kind of yoke and burden to be anything but restful.
But Jesus promised rest - rest while ladened with a burden plus a yoke. How could this be so for you and me as Christians? Doesn't striving to live a Christian life involve any thing but rest? Notice Jesus' words:
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne" - Matthew 11:28-30
Notice Jesus qualifies burden with "heavy-laden" and "overburdened". He does not say no laden and no burden, but He uses the words "heavy" and "over" burdened, making each something that is too much for one to carry.
He promises that if we come to Him, He will make our burden easier to carry, and make our yoke lighter - even a pleasure and a joy.
What has seemed to be an almost unbearable burden and a painful hurting yoke, He will relieve the pressure and strain that hinders us and drags us down, and discourages us. And if we truly come to Him, he will make our lives a pleasure in serving Him. He will make our lives invigorating and a joy in our surrender to Him. Compared to life and living like the world lives, we can be relieved of enormous burdens that go with living as the world lives.
Life serving Him will be like a breath of fresh air.
His "burden" will be light compared to the world's way. He pleads for us to give up the heavy burdens of this world, and come to Him for relief. He is saying that, compared to this world, His burden and yoke will be light indeed! Once we surrender completely, our "burder" and "yoke" becomes lighter.
Living our life as we would like to live it brings many sorrows, disappointments, and ultimately is futile. But if we have surrendered completely to Christ, He will fill us with a peace - a peace that passes understanding to those who believe with only with the mind, but not from the heart. With the mind, one only reasons. With the heart, we believes unto surrender.
When one surrenders without reservation, His burden and yoke becomes lighter and lighter as time goes by.
Heaviness has become joy under His burden and yoke. To win everything from Him, we must loose everything that constitutes the natural us. When we do, the love of Christ becomes everything. And it will all seem light compared with the burdens and problems of this life without His "burden" and His "yoke".
"For whoever is bent on saving his [temporal] life [his comfort and security here] shall lose it [eternal life]; and whoever loses his life [his comfort and security here] for My sake shall find it [life everlasting]." - Matthew 16:25
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