KEEPING STEP!

 

Come to Me, all you 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 NKJV)

A yoke for two! All through His earthly life Jesus was saying: take my yoke. What was His yoke? It was surely His desire to do the Father's will. This was the watchword of His life  (John 5:30; John 6:38). So persuasive was his appeal, that the sons of Zebedee left their father and boat; Andrew and Simon their fishing-nets; and Matthew his toll booth to become His disciples. Women forsook their sins and men their ambitions, in order to become His humble friends and followers. Saul, the proud young Pharisee, heard His appeal, and abandoning everything that might lead to high honor and worldly success, counted it his highest glory to be associated with Christ in redeeming a lost world.

But this association or fellowship requires agreement, identity of purpose. "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" (Amos 3:3). Hence there can be no fellowship between light and darkness; between the Christian soul and the unbeliever (2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 1 John 1:6-7). The yoke means subsoil plowing. The salvation of a lost world or of one human soul is no child's play. Christ saw before Him the hard surface of mankind, the spirit of man caked over by long years of neglect and resistance. Before salvation can be effected the subsoil has to be turned up, and the thoughts of many hearts revealed (Jeremiah 17:9-10). The yoke means fellowship. The divine and the human united in feeding the five thousand; in turning the water into wine; in the raising of Lazarus! There has never been an island redeemed from cannibalism to service for Christ, or a paralytic cleansed and healed apart from the co-operation of the divine and human. Yoke bearing anticipates the harvest. So we plow the row in hope, knowing that one day the harvest will be ripe, and one like unto the Son of Man will thrust in His sharp sickle and reap. What a joy it will be to share in that harvest!

PRAYER

The yoke You impose, O Lord, are wings of freedom. Put around my heart the cord of Your captivating love. Bind me to Yourself as You bind the planets to the sun, that it may become the law of my nature to be led by You. This is my pray in Your name, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #106:
I will cover you all day long as you rest between My shoulders. 

Deuteronomy 33:12 (WEB)
Of Benjamin he said, “The beloved of Yahweh shall dwell in safety by him.
He covers him all the day long. He dwells between his shoulders.”