“Turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 30:10
The only way you can come to God is with all your soul. When Jesus said “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden,” he was talking to all that’s in you. What does that look like? What does it mean to turn to God with all your heart and soul?
Are you bound exclusively to Christ?
“Take my yoke upon you…” Matthew 11:29 (NIV)
The yoke was a harness that tied two animals together to keep them in line when they were ploughing a field. Once you were in the yoke you couldn’t get out of it. When Jesus invites you to take His yoke, He’s inviting you into a binding relationship.
Some people want to walk with Jesus, but they want the freedom to depart from him when he takes a difficult path. There is no rest for your soul in that. Coming to Jesus means that I bind myself to Christ: “Where you go, I go. Where you lead I follow.”
It is exclusive because you cannot be yoked to many people at the same time. Take my yoke on you. Bind yourself to me. That means that I detach myself from other yokes. The problem for some of us is that we are already yoked:
Christ says “Take my yoke upon you.” We respond “Sorry Lord, I’m already yoked to pleasure. I am already yoked to popularity. I am yoked to success. I am already yoked to self.” Christ says “Break up those yokes and take my yoke upon you.”
The purpose of the yoke is to make sure that you go where He is going. The yoke makes it possible for you to play your part in his purpose. It delivers you from doing your own thing, and missing the purpose for which God brought you into the world.
There will be times when you pull against the yoke and it hurts, but on the last there will be no greater blessing than to go where he is going. When you see Christ on the last day you will be so glad all that you are yoked to him.
“Take my yoke upon you…” That is how you will come to know God, and that is where you will find rest for your soul. .
Is Christ your teacher?
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me…” Matthew 11:29 (NIV)
You have to be ready to take the position of a student in the classroom. Some of us find that difficult. We want to sit on the board of examiners. We come to God with our questions, as if He needed to pass our tests.
“What’s your answer to this? How can you explain that?” God will never answer you if you come to Him like that. He does not need to sit for your test. Jesus says “You must resign from the board of examiners, and you must enroll as a student in my class. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.”
Are you ready to learn from Him? Will you let Him be your teacher? Will you allow Him to lead you into all truth through His Word? Christ will not answer every question, but when you are ready to learn from Him, He will give rest to your soul.
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This LifeKey is based on the message “Finding Rest and Restoration,” by Pastor Colin S. Smith, delivered February 10, 2002, from the series “Battles From the Boardroom of the Soul.” Colin currently serves as Senior Pastor of the The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He is committed to preaching the Bible in a way that nourishes the soul by directing attention to Jesus Christ.
