When your shoulders feel burdened and your heart is heavy, you need to ask whose yoke you are wearing.
When stress bears down on your neck and depression clouds your mind, you need to ask whose yoke you are wearing.
When despair shuts down your vision and hopelessness siphons your strength, you need to ask whose yoke you are wearing.
“Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
When Jesus is offering you His yoke, it is an invitation to lay down whatever you are carrying (the yoke you have been walking in) whether it’s heavy because of what others have put on it or because of the burdens you yourself have added.
It is an invitation to come alongside Jesus and yoke up with Him. His yoke is light for you because He bears all the weight of it. The word used for “easy” doesn’t mean without effort, it means “fit for use”.
There is still a yoke to bear and a burden to carry. The difference is that Jesus bears the weight of it and gently trains you on how to fully function in it.
How to walk and rest, follow and trust, and with Him function faithfully in God’s purposes for you.
Are you bearing your own yoke? Your own plans, purpose, and expectations?
Are you walking in someone else’s yoke? Someone else’s plans, purposes, and expectations?
What are God’s plans, purposes, and expectations for this day? What would it look like to walk in them?
May you check whose yoke you are shouldering often and learn from Jesus how to be fully yoked with Him.
May you trust His gentle heart and let Him lead you to unseen delights of service to others today.
