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.”
Yesterday we talked about the “Yoke” of God. Today we will be talking about why we should wear this yoke and how it can set us free. Everyday we learn new things. Even if someone doesn’t teach us we still learn by watching or listening. Jesus says that IF we take His yoke THEN we will learn from Him. Isn’t that an awesome thought that we can learn from Jesus instead of the world? Not that there is anything wrong with the world as God created the heavens and the earth. But what we want to do is to be able to have God’s love and wisdom filling us to overflowing. THEN we need to go out into the world and witness and love, not the other way around. I tried the other way for 38 years and made a fool of myself.
The first part of this verse is “Come to me”. I cannot stress enough the importance of having a relationship with Jesus. Since many new people get this devotional each day some of you may not be saved. To find out how to be saved and to be set free please click on
http://www.theultimatedecision.com/howtogettoheaven.html
It seems like the older we get the more weary and burdened life becomes. The trials of life can really beat us down. But life doesn’t have to be that way. A lot of people are miserable in this life because they have not learned to GIVE their burdens over to Jesus. Let’s say you have a burden of worry about your health. Maybe you are waiting on a test to come back from the doctor’s office. You may pray and give it over to the Lord and have peace. That test result may come back negative and then you forget all about Jesus and get back to life as normal. We are all guilty of this. The key to having joy in this life is to REMEMBER that God loves YOU and He is not out to harm you. But we need to have a thankful heart and not a heart that is full of entitlement. A lot of times in life we are miserable because we think we deserve _______________. We deserve hell but God saved us. Why can’t that be enough to set our hopes on and give us joy? No wonder we have burdens. We desire things that will not last and have our hope in things that are fleeting.
Please try this experiment. Take out a piece of paper and on the left side of the paper write down all the things that you are burdened with. On the right side of the paper write down all the things that God has either protected you from or trials that He has gotten you through. If you do not journal (writing daily what God is doing in your life) you will forget a lot of God’s miracles in your life. Satan is a great deceiver and will try to make you forget all the great and good things God has done for you. When I read my journal I almost get embarrassed that I doubted. I see everytime that God delivered me. I am sure that you could say the same thing. Now God may have delivered you in a different way than you asked but it was better than what you wanted.
Many of you have a front row seat to what we have been going through with our finances. I truly believe that God is revealing His glory to you through this. He is showing ALL of us that we need to be content with our Daily Bread which we are promised and not our monthly or yearly bread. Day after day God always shows up and we are more and more grateful. We also know that we need to stay close to God. Plus so many of you have partnered with us that we now feel like a team. God has made us to be a team that goes out into a dark world. We are not meant to be alone.
Have you ever watched the nature channel where the lions are hunting? The lions go after the animal that has gotten away from the pack. We can become weary, disillusioned and depressed when we try to go this life alone. DON’T GET PICKED OFF!! If you are there now we have an awesome group of “Prayer Warriors” that desire to pray for you and lift you up. Please e mail me your burdens. Also Jesus is waiting for you to speak to Him. Try to slow your life down so that not only do you have time to read what God has to say about His love for you but He will also speak to you though His word or His Spirit.
As we end part two try to listen to God. We had a huge response on the “Tell Me” series. A number of you wrote in telling me what God revealed to you through His word or by praying. As you memorize the above verse in Matthew “Tell Me” what burden God is asking you to give up so that we can pray for you. Also if you have read the devotional on our website on how to be saved and you made that decision please e mail me and we will send you out materials to help you grow in the faith.
I pray that after two days that you will see a couple things. Jesus desires to take your burden from you BUT you need to give it over and let it go. That takes faith. Ask the Lord for faith as Jesus desires to give you an abundant life. Do not feel guilty about letting that burden go. Jesus also desires our heart and mind to slow down. We are not in control Jesus is! Tomorrow we will talk about the power that Jesus has to offer and how to experience a Spirit filled life.
Have a great day
Brad
