Stop Striving - Matthew 11:28-30

 Matthew 11:28-30 says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Ok so I've been reading a book called Touching Godliness by K. P. Yohannan and it has really been knocking my socks off. It's about submission and how when you rebel against the authorities that God has placed in your life, you are actually refusing to submit to Him. It doesn't matter if the people in authority over you are Christians, or you are actually smarter than them, God has placed them in authority over you so your job is to submit and you will be blessed.

So, one of the chapters is about how Jesus is our example and he mentions this verse and a point that he made just blew me away. So Jesus tells us to take His yoke upon ourselves. That means that Jesus had a yoke to bear. My Jesus isn't proud or someone who expects me to work while He sits above me and watches. He is broken, humble and submissive asking me to come beside Him and be under that same yoke of submission.

God has been using this passage to speak to me during the time that I have been in IGNITE, especially during training. He has been changing me and stretching me and growing me so much during this time. But there were times during training that I just felt burdened. I start to look at the work that I'm doing as exactly that. Work that I am doing. I try to do everything by myself and take the glory without realizing it but I get tired and heavy laden. But Jesus tells me to lay down my burdens and take up His. I don't have to try. This work isn't mine, it's His. He wants to work through me. The work that God is using me for is not about me and I need to stop looking at it that way and give my burdens to Him. He will give me rest. This isn't talking about physical rest necessarily but I don't have to strive anymore. His yoke is easy and His burden is light. When I give into what He is doing and let Him work through me, I can rest in Him. This is really comforting to me. I love my Jesus.

Application:

This is a verse that I had on my bunk during training but isn't up anymore so I am going to put in on my wall and also be praying that Christ would work through me instead of me trying to do the work myself. I want to take His yoke.