It is amazing that we can love someone who is not of our world and whom we have never met except through the connection we feel when we read the scriptures. The Word is incredible. It's not ordinary because it overrides our natural tendency not to believe in someone or something unless we can prove their existence. Our behavior proves God's ownership of us because he designed us to feel that connection when the Word enters our consciousness. It is amazing.
The part that hit me hard was, “one question worth thinking about: whose yoke are you actually wearing?”
I think back to all of the yokes I’ve worn that were connected to people or things that were clearly not Jesus. My the effort that has been exhausted over the years by wearing those yokes.
True. Jesus Christ accepted fully in the heart, will bring peace and rest from the burden of guilt, the emotional, mental ,and even the physical labor. It this work that we cannot find rest from as sinful beings laden with guilt and condemned. Everything we do has the marks of being temporal, uncertian, unsafe, unsatisfactory, unfulfiling, burdensome to our souls and we feel to be alone. Until we come to Christ- To work the works that He worked; the work that has in eternity in mind, that doesn't have selfish motives, or wears out our souls and destroy our health.
"I WILL GIVE YOU REST" is an invitation, a promise that Christ is the True Rest from the works of sin and death.
This is very helpful, thank you. I'm living with a chronic illness that often causes fatigue and I get fed up when I'm constantly given the first part of this verse by well-meaning Christians. I ended up feeling like I was doing something wrong because I wasn't finding the rest Jesus seemed to promise - and others assured me was available. Now I know to keep reading, to see the full message Jesus intended - what a relief! Without realising it, these lovely, well-meaning people were actually adding to my burden - giving me a yoke Jesus never meant me to have. I wonder how many other badly fitting yokes I carry? I'm sure Jesus will answer that question. Thank you once again.
Living with fatigue must make that harder still, carrying not just the tiredness itself but the extra weight of feeling like you're failing to receive something that was supposed to be free.
What strikes me is the question you're left holding: how many other yokes have you picked up without noticing they were never yours to carry? That's an uncomfortable question.
It might also be the more honest one. I don't get the sense Jesus is in any hurry for you to answer it.
Thanks Derek, that's something God speaks to me about every now and then. I once wrote a poem called 'living with a label'. Maybe I'll have the courage to post it sometime? 😉 I ended up realising I need to sift through those labels, discard the ones that don't fit/lie and carry the others under my arm - instead of hanging round my neck! 😁
Ha — you've compressed the whole passage into one line.
What Jesus is actually offering isn't relief from carrying something; it's a different master to carry it with. That distinction cost me a few years to notice.
That line took me a long time to find, and I'm not sure I fully believed it when I first wrote it.
I'd spent years in a faith culture where trying hard felt suspicious. If you were genuinely working at something, you probably hadn't understood grace yet. The two months we spent doing the practices together showed me the flaw in that. You can work hard at something and still not be asking it to prove your worth.
This is a good understanding of the text & the “learning process” regarding the yoke of the Lord is what illustrates it.
I think we can also skip over the phrase, “rest for your souls.” It is a much deeper, penetrating rest. One that is more spiritual than physical, internal than external.
You're right, and it's worth slowing down on that phrase.
The Greek word is psyche soul, the seat of the whole inner life. This makes it a different category of rest entirely from the physical relief most of us default to. What I've found is that the soul-rest Jesus describes can coexist with a genuinely demanding week, which is almost the opposite of how I used to think about it. The lightness isn't circumstantial. It runs deeper than whatever is happening on the surface.
That's either the most hopeful thing in the passage or the most uncomfortable, depending on what you were hoping rest would fix.
That line came out of something I'd felt for a long time.
I'd absorbed a version of faith where trying hard felt suspicious. Like if you were genuinely working at something, you probably hadn't understood grace yet. The two months we spent doing the practices together showed me the flaw in that. You can work hard at something and still not be asking it to prove your worth.
It is amazing that we can love someone who is not of our world and whom we have never met except through the connection we feel when we read the scriptures. The Word is incredible. It's not ordinary because it overrides our natural tendency not to believe in someone or something unless we can prove their existence. Our behavior proves God's ownership of us because he designed us to feel that connection when the Word enters our consciousness. It is amazing.
Wow! Thank you for this insight.
The part that hit me hard was, “one question worth thinking about: whose yoke are you actually wearing?”
I think back to all of the yokes I’ve worn that were connected to people or things that were clearly not Jesus. My the effort that has been exhausted over the years by wearing those yokes.
True. Jesus Christ accepted fully in the heart, will bring peace and rest from the burden of guilt, the emotional, mental ,and even the physical labor. It this work that we cannot find rest from as sinful beings laden with guilt and condemned. Everything we do has the marks of being temporal, uncertian, unsafe, unsatisfactory, unfulfiling, burdensome to our souls and we feel to be alone. Until we come to Christ- To work the works that He worked; the work that has in eternity in mind, that doesn't have selfish motives, or wears out our souls and destroy our health.
"I WILL GIVE YOU REST" is an invitation, a promise that Christ is the True Rest from the works of sin and death.
This is very helpful, thank you. I'm living with a chronic illness that often causes fatigue and I get fed up when I'm constantly given the first part of this verse by well-meaning Christians. I ended up feeling like I was doing something wrong because I wasn't finding the rest Jesus seemed to promise - and others assured me was available. Now I know to keep reading, to see the full message Jesus intended - what a relief! Without realising it, these lovely, well-meaning people were actually adding to my burden - giving me a yoke Jesus never meant me to have. I wonder how many other badly fitting yokes I carry? I'm sure Jesus will answer that question. Thank you once again.
Living with fatigue must make that harder still, carrying not just the tiredness itself but the extra weight of feeling like you're failing to receive something that was supposed to be free.
What strikes me is the question you're left holding: how many other yokes have you picked up without noticing they were never yours to carry? That's an uncomfortable question.
It might also be the more honest one. I don't get the sense Jesus is in any hurry for you to answer it.
Thanks Derek, that's something God speaks to me about every now and then. I once wrote a poem called 'living with a label'. Maybe I'll have the courage to post it sometime? 😉 I ended up realising I need to sift through those labels, discard the ones that don't fit/lie and carry the others under my arm - instead of hanging round my neck! 😁
I am so happy you found it helpful and I understand the feeling like you are doing something wrong but that is so not the case!
Thanks Diane. Praying for you as you get treatment for your back.
Thank you!!
A yoke is neither a pillow nor a back rest.
Ha — you've compressed the whole passage into one line.
What Jesus is actually offering isn't relief from carrying something; it's a different master to carry it with. That distinction cost me a few years to notice.
What an insight: Grace was never opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning.
That line took me a long time to find, and I'm not sure I fully believed it when I first wrote it.
I'd spent years in a faith culture where trying hard felt suspicious. If you were genuinely working at something, you probably hadn't understood grace yet. The two months we spent doing the practices together showed me the flaw in that. You can work hard at something and still not be asking it to prove your worth.
Grace changes the motive, not the muscles.
This is a good understanding of the text & the “learning process” regarding the yoke of the Lord is what illustrates it.
I think we can also skip over the phrase, “rest for your souls.” It is a much deeper, penetrating rest. One that is more spiritual than physical, internal than external.
You're right, and it's worth slowing down on that phrase.
The Greek word is psyche soul, the seat of the whole inner life. This makes it a different category of rest entirely from the physical relief most of us default to. What I've found is that the soul-rest Jesus describes can coexist with a genuinely demanding week, which is almost the opposite of how I used to think about it. The lightness isn't circumstantial. It runs deeper than whatever is happening on the surface.
That's either the most hopeful thing in the passage or the most uncomfortable, depending on what you were hoping rest would fix.
So true!!
The phrase that jumped out at me was, "face on a whiteboard looks nothing like Faith with mud on its shoes." ❤️ For real!
That line came out of something I'd felt for a long time.
I'd absorbed a version of faith where trying hard felt suspicious. Like if you were genuinely working at something, you probably hadn't understood grace yet. The two months we spent doing the practices together showed me the flaw in that. You can work hard at something and still not be asking it to prove your worth.
Grace changes the motive, not the muscles.
Yes!!!