Matt. 11:29 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.
Picture one
of your favorite places to be where you can sit back, relax, and just unwind
from all that the world does to try and rob you of your peace. Whether that
place for you is in a cabin on a mountain, sitting on a beach, or your own
home, it still cannot provide the rest that comes through Jesus Christ. People
are forever trying to find ways to “escape” the pressures of the day, but they
often overlook the One who has a rest that you can walk in every day, no matter
what may come your way.
Jesus
acknowledges in the verses above that even when we get heavy laden, and are
laboring in our own strength and becoming weak, we can come to Him and find the
rest we need. The first key is that we need to “come” to Him. This is more than
an appeal to become born again, although that is the starting place for anyone
who has not accepted Christ as their Savior. Yet many are born again and are
still burdened down in life and laboring away in their strength wondering why
they are so heavy laden. The first step to the rest we seek is coming to Him,
not running to the world, or what it has to offer to try and find rest.
I am not
speaking against taking a vacation and getting away to enjoy some time of
relaxation, but to think that a vacation is the answer to our problems is not
realistic. When the vacation is over we will still be faced with the things of
life that often will try to overwhelm us. Many have not yet realized that
scripture teaches us we are in a battle. This is war, and we are soldiers of
Jesus Christ. In battle there are times of challenge, times of struggle, but we
can run to Jesus and get rest in the midst of it all.
Psa. 23:4 Yea, though I walk through
the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me.
Psa. 23:5 You prepare a table before
me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs
over.
Psa. 23:6 Surely goodness and mercy
shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the
LORD Forever.
We are
walking through a valley of the shadow of death and we are in the presence of
our enemies, which is the devil and his cohorts, but right in the midst of it
all the Lord has prepared a banqueting table where we can come and experience
His refreshing presence through His anointing, and we can learn about the
goodness of God and His mercy and how His word can comfort us and strengthen
us. Where is the place we can find all this? Notice in verse 6 we are told
where. This is found in the house of the Lord, or what we call going to church.
In Psalm
122:1 the psalmist said he was glad when they said let us go into the house of
the Lord. Today many people seem to be sad about going to God’s house. They
seem happier getting to leave God’s house and go back to their fleshly world.
If you aren’t careful your flesh, other people, and the world itself will
deceive you into thinking that church is a duty and a chore, not a place of
refreshing and rest. It is true that if the church you go to does not allow the
Holy Spirit to show up and minister to people we are not getting the help of
the Helper God has for us. But I am talking about people who go to good
churches with pastors and church family that love them and want to help them.
To come to
Jesus and find rest we must stop our flesh and other influences from deceiving
us and making us think that going to church is nothing more than fulfilling my
Christian duty. The Lord’s house is one of the easiest places to find the
presence of God, hear through the Word of God the Lord speaking to you, and
where you can find others that just like you have their faults and challenges;
but will love you and do what they can to be a strength to you. If we want His
rest it is not going to come by working harder to earn more money, nor just
have more recreation time. Far too many today are ditching God’s house to work
more hours or to do other things thinking this is the answer to bring peace to
their life, but it is not. Don’t allow your flesh, the devil, or anyone else
keep you from the very place God designed to bless your life.
Coming to
God’s house is not the only way we come to Jesus. Through His shed blood we
have direct access to our relationship with Him and with the Father. We can
also of course approach Him in fellowship through prayer, and through the Word
of God. It is through the house of God, His Word, and through prayer that we
have the ability to then do what is the second key to experiencing the rest
that He has for us, we can then learn of Him. This is a very important part of
how we experience this wonderful rest that God has for our soul. To learn of
Jesus means we are to learn about Him, what He has done for us, and follow in
His example. We are not going to find rest for our soul living the way we did
as a sinner. God wants to transform our life.
John 14:1
DO NOT let your hearts be troubled (distressed, agitated). You
believe in and adhere to and trust in and rely on God; believe in and adhere to
and trust in and rely also on Me. AMP
When Jesus
tells us to not let our hearts be troubled that means there is something we
have to do about it. If you focus on the problems you have in life as being the
reason you have no rest, you are not going to experience the rest Jesus has for
you. It is how we respond to the issues of the day that will determine whether
we walk in the rest God has for us or not. Jesus tells us here that we need to
adhere to and trust in Him. To do so we not only put our faith in what Jesus did
for us through the cross, but we also now show our faith in Him by believing in
His Word and applying it to our lives. This is how we take His yoke upon us and
learn from Him.
Taking His
yoke is a primary reference to the fact that we cannot earn our righteousness
through any means of religious works, it is only by faith in Jesus that our
sins are washed away and we become the righteousness of God in Him. But once we
have done so we have just begun our walk with God and if we want to experience
the rest He has for us here, we are going to have to learn of Him. The
wonderful truth is that everyone can do so. There is no one that cannot see
their lives changed and transformed through what Christ has done for them and then yielding to His way of doing
things.
Rom. 12:1 Therefore
I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living
and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of
worship.
Rom. 12:2 And do not
be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so
that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable
and perfect.
Anybody can
do this. I have seen over the years as a pastor people who have seen their
lives transformed and changed, and others who know they should, but claim they
cannot do so. That is a lie from the devil. Everyone has the same 24 hours in a
day and the same God-given ability to see their lives changed, and to enter the
rest He has for us. We simply must make the choice to come to Him, take upon us
His yoke, and learn of Him. You can enter the rest God has for you!
See You Again
Next Week For More “Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best
Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl Baker
