Trying or Trusting?
/Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:28-30 ESV
1969 U of AZ friends “Hanging out '“ at the jail in old tucson
We responded in faith to Jesus’ beautiful invitation, “Here to ME and I will rest you.”
And we RECEIVEd the amazing Rest of UNION with Him. This rest is fixed, permanent, and unchanging. He Himself is our Rest…always and forever!
But now we wonder, how can we experience the rest that we have as a permanent possession? Jesus doesn’t leave us in the dark. That’s where the next two verses come in…
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.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
A Rest WE FIND.
What is this Rest we find?
It’s the Rest of Soul in COMMUNION with God, experiencing oneness and intimacy with God with Whom we are already united in a fixed and permanent relationship.
What is our soul?
Our soul is our inner person – our mind, our emotions, and our will. One author has explained it this way:
Your spirit is where you receive God’s Life,
your soul is where you experience God’s Life,
and your body is where you express God’s Life.
(Alive and Free, Matt Smith)
Our spirit-union is fixed and unchanging; but our soul-communion (experiencing our union with God) is changeable, fluctuating.
To help us understand this, Jesus uses the image of a yoke.
What is a yoke?
A yoke is a bar or frame of wood that connects two animals together for a purpose or work of some kind. This was and is a common sight in the Middle East. Typically, a stronger animal is yoked to a weaker or more inexperienced one and so takes the lead. The two animals then work together to complete the same job.
In addition to this use with animals, a slave-owner/ master sometimes used a yoke to bind and control his slaves.
The apostle Paul called himself a bond-slave/servant of the Lord, Romans1:1Symbolically then, the yoke is a picture of being attached to one who is stronger and more skilled to accomplish a purpose together.
It also expresses yielding control to a master who is greater in power and authority.
So a yoke signifies attachment and yielding control or dependence.
Jesus says that we are to take on HIS yoke in order to find rest for our soul. And the soul is where we often struggle and experience lack of peace and rest. But as we chose living from union with HIM above all other competing attachments, as we focus on HIM and depend on HIM, we experience the peace and rest of a Loving Lord who lives in and through us in every situation we face. So …
HE does the living, I do the letting.*
But there are other yokes, false yokes, besides Christ’s yoke, that are pulling at us. These are often good things that end up becoming addictions, obsessions, dependencies, mini-gods that exert control over our lives.
Christine Wyrtzen, in her beautiful blog Daughters of Promise,** names a few that we can become attached to if we are not living by our indwelling Christ, focusing on Him, yoked to Him above all else:
the yoke of religion and living by “others’ measuring stick” (like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day):
--duty
--legalisms
--heavy rulesthe yoke of slavery and living by “the demands of controllers:”
--someone who "got the upper hand when you were vulnerable”
-- unholy ways of family (of origin)
-- a spouse, a sibling, aging parentthe yoke of shame and living by “the opinions of flawed people:”
--preachers, politicians
--false guilt – calling something “sin” but not
--hanging onto shame over repented sinthe yoke of the flesh and living “like I did before I believed:”
--coping mechanisms
--addictions: food, alcohol, drugs, binge watching
--codependency – keep someone ok or vice versa /unhealthy neediness
—defensiveness, blaming
—self focusthe yoke of deception and living by “lies conceived at the gates of darkness:”
--lies about God and His character
--lies about what God says about us and others (see GLI chart below)
--self-rejection
--negative self-talkthe yoke of self-effort and living by my own ingenuity and driven-ness [my personal addition]
--figuring it out to fix it
** Here is a link to her helpful pdf on “Yokes.”
As an example, I’d like to share the false yokes that John and I struggled with for years in our marriage (with his permission):
When we were married in 1971, ultra-conservative teaching about the submission of the wife and headship of the husband was being preached in many evangelical churches. We encountered it as married students at Moody Bible Institute (1973-1976). And it was especially rampant in the conservative evangelical community in Dayton (when we moved here in 1983, because of the Bill Gothard teaching?). Since I was very conscientious about the Will of God, wanting to be a godly wife, I embraced the extreme teaching, not realizing it wasn’t Biblically balanced. It produced a dysfunctional codependency in my relationship with John. It killed our friendship (which is how we started out our relationship), and almost destroyed my soul.
Eventually, I heard the Holy Spirit as He pointed out the lie I had believed for many years. He showed me I was looking to John to be my source of love, acceptance, and worth. In the meantime, John had been looking to me to keep him ok and be his source. None of those codependent flesh patterns worked for either of us.
Finally, years into our marriage, the Holy Spirit let me know I had to live from my attachment to God as my focus and source. So I detached from my codependency with John. There was upheaval in our relationship for quite a while. John wasn’t quite there yet. But God has been working in both of us. Little by little, our friendship has been restored. And we are now living as “heirs together of the grace of life” (1 Peter 3:7) -- partners with God and each other in His roles for us in this life.
So I have learned that as I take on HIS YOKE day by day…
… living from my attachment to HIM as my Source
… depending on HIM, not my self -effort,
He truly does the Living and I do the letting…
May I ask you, dear READERS …
Who or what you might you be attached to/ yoked to in an unhealthy, addictive, codependent way…as the source of love, acceptance, value, security? Only God is your Source!
Is there a lie you are believing and living from?
Is negative self-talk tormenting your soul?Do you depend on “coping mechanisms”/ flesh patterns in order to “do life”? … to get through your stressful days?
THROW OFF those false Yokes!
DETACH from the fleshly survival tactics.
Spiritual writer Richard Rohr (Everything Belongs) points out,
“All great spirituality is about letting go [detaching].”
And the only way to “let go/ detach” is to … “attach.”
Live from your attachment to Christ…focusing on HIM as your Source.
As Adele Ahleberg Calhoun, author of Spiritual Disciplines Handbook, says,
“Detachment finds its true home in attachment to Jesus alone.”
And so as Jesus says every moment,
“HERE… to ME!
Not to that, not to them … live from your permanent attachment to ME …
And you will find REST for your SOULS …”
Let’s PRAY
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Matthew 11:28-30 MSG
Oh Lord, that is our desire … to gaze at You, to focus on you, to rest in You, to move with You, and to experience YOU as …
Love beyond our love
Forgiveness beyond our forgiveness
Patience beyond our patience
Skill beyond our skill
Fullness beyond our fullness
Peace beyond our peace
Rest beyond our rest.
In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
*Thank you, Mike Q. Daniel (https://mikeqdaniel.com)
Because I am in Christ...
I Am Loved
I am a child of God-John 1:12
I am beloved-Romans 9:25
I am chosen-Colossians 3:12
I am loved by God as much as Jesus is-John 17:23, 26
I am Jesus's friend-John 15:15
I am inseparable from God's love-Romans 8:37-39
I Am Acceptable
I am accepted by God-Romans 15:7
I am righteous-2 Corinthians 5:21
I am a saint-1 Corinthians 1:2; Ephesians 1:1 (NASB)
I am not condemned-Romans 8:1
I am completely forgiven-Colossians 2:13
I am holy and blameless-Ephesians 1:4
I Am Valuable
I am God's masterpiece-Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)
I am adopted-Ephesians 1:5
I am God's treasure-Matthew 13:44
I am God's pearl-Matthew 13:45-46
I am a new creation-2 Corinthians 5:17
I am designed by God-Psalm 139:13-16
I Am Secure
I am more than a conqueror-Romans 8:37
I am complete in Christ-Colossians 2:10
I am safe in Christ-Colossians 3:3-4
I am seated in the heavenly realms-Ephesians 2:6
I am eternally in Christ-John 10:28
I am united with Christ-1 Corinthians 6:17
(FromGod's Best-Kept Secret: Christianity Is Easier Than You Think
Mark Mauldin
