Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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  HCSB

Let’s face it, there are times when life just weighs us down.  It feels as though we have this tremendous weight on our shoulders and as though we are drowning in a sea of work, debt, anguish, whatever we may be facing.  It seems as though it is just so heavy and we just can’t get out from under it.  Psalm 42 is a Psalm of deep despair and in verse 7, David says, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;  all your waves and breakers have swept over me”.  I can identify with this because when I am facing difficult times, I often feel as though I am drowning.  You see I have a fear of being underwater, so there is no telling what kind of field day a professional would have with this, but you understand what I mean.

But in this scripture passage, Jesus makes it sound so simple, just come to Him.  That sounds so easy just run to Jesus and He will give you rest.  Oh, but there’s more.  Then he tells us that we must take his yoke upon us and learn from Him.  We were made in Christ’s image and therefore we were made to imitate Him.  Ephesians chapter 5 gives a very detailed account of how we should live as Christians.  I strongly encourage you to read all 32 verses when you have time, but it begins in verse one by telling us that we should follow God’s example.  In 1 Corinthians, 11:1 Paul tells the Corinthians to imitate him as he imitates Christ.  Now right here is where some of you are falling out and saying, “Oh, I can’t do that, it’s just too hard.”  Well, I can assure you I have tried it both ways and it is much harder to imitate the world.  It is much harder in the long run to go along to get along.  It is much harder to just do what everyone else is doing.  Why?  Well, because eventually this is going to wear you down.  This is going to bring you down because by and large the world is just wandering around clueless.  They don’t know God and they don’t want to know God if it means giving up the things they love.

But when we are weighed down and we have had enough of the world, we can turn to God.  We can take His yoke and learn from Him.  You see, once you truly turn to God, you no longer want to imitate the world.  You want to imitate God.  You want to please Him.  Once you repent of your sin and allow Him to lift the burden of sin from your heart, you can ask that He fill you with His Holy Spirit.  You can be made new again and you will find rest.  That beautiful four letter word, rest.

If you are exhausted from trying to follow the world and imitate them, then know that God is waiting for you to come to Him and come to your senses.  Know that He waits with outstretched arms for you to exchange the heaviness of this world for the light easy burden that is His yoke.

I pray that you will do this today.  Once you start to imitate Him, you will find your load to be much lighter.  Once you live under the realm of His protection, you will find security, rest and peace and joy.

Have a great day!