Matthew 11:28-30
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.
What constitutes weariness? If we enter an exercise regimen, the first days will seem like pure agony. Muscles will throb that we never even knew existed. So it is not the amount of excursion we expend, but being prepared to deal the demands of life.
When I was in high school I played football. In the first days of practice we didn’t even see a football. All we were exposed to was calisthenics. This is a harsh word that means to torture your body until it screams! Strange as it seems, after a few days we were able to breeze through the routines and were now prepared to run through the plays that would make us successful in the games that lay ahead.
I have often wished I knew more about farming. My limited association is to grasp the idea that you had to get up at sunrise and work until the sun went down. There is a lot more to it. Take the term yoke. In modern practices it is seldom used. It is when two dray animals (often oxen) have a wooden yoke placed across their shoulders and as they walk they pull the load.
For a young animal this seems cruel to yoke them in with a much larger animal. I am told however, that this is for training purposes only. The larger animal carries the burden and the youngster only walks along beside. That is what Jesus calls us to do. When we are weary and burdened with the cares of life, we slip His yoke over our shoulders and walk beside Him. DO NOT BE WEARY!
May God richly bless you as you bless others by your words and actions!
– – – Pastor Cecil