Matthew 11:28-30 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Many churches today have gotten away from giving an invitation at the end of their services. I don’t understand the thinking behind this movement today, I mean the Bible is full of instances where God gives us an invitation to people. Jesus is inviting those that are willing to come to Him for rest. There were many people that had religion that were following the Lord. Religion tells people all that they must DO something in order to gain God’s favor. The gospel tells us that the work is DONE in Jesus Christ! He is calling people to enter into the rest that can only be had by trusting in Him.
Another aspect of resting in Christ, is bringing our burdens to Him. Allowing Him to help us bear those burdens, trials and heartaches. Jesus says, to come to Him with those issues and He will give us rest.
Then He tells us to take on His yoke. A yoke is an instrument of labor. On the one hand Jesus tells us to rest, then on the other hand he tells is to work. We must remember that a yoke is made for two!! Jesus is telling us that when we take up His yoke, we are not alone, He is working with us, or should I say that we are working with Him. Not only is the yoke a place of labor, but it is also a place of learning. Jesus tells us that as we labor with Him, we will learn more about Him. We will learn His character, that He is meek and lowly of heart. That is, that Jesus is the example, of power under control and humility!!! The rest that the Lord will give us as we labor with, and learn about Him, will be all the way to our soul. Why, because His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.
This passage should be applied to all of our lives! We all have burdens and difficulties in life. Jesus is inviting us to bring them to Him, then to take up His Burden, His yoke. He never says that our burdens go away, He does however tell us that we will find sweet rest in Him. We learn so much of Christ as we are willing to work with Him. Our burdens will become lighter as we allow the Lord to bear them with us, and while we serve others. We then gain a knowledge of Him like we will never have if we don’t serve Christ in spite of our trials.
Won’t you respond to the Lord’s invitation to rest? It is not the absence of labor, it is just a lot lighter with Christ, than it is laboring alone.