"Come unto Me" before you "Go ye into"

Scripture:

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (29) Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. (30) For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Observation:

A yoke is a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment the oxen are to pull. A person may be carrying heavy burdens of (1) sin, (2) excessive demands of religious leaders (Matthew 23:4; Acts 15:10), (3) oppression and persecution, or (4) weariness in the search for God. Jesus frees people from all these burdens. The rest that Jesus promises is love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all labor. A relationship with God changes meaningless, wearisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose.

In what sense was Jesus' yoke easy? The yoke emphasizes the challenges, work, and difficulties of partnering with Christ in life. Responsibilities weigh us down, even the effort of staying true to God. But Jesus' yoke remains easy compared to the crushing alternative.

Jesus doesn't offer a life of luxurious ease-the yoke is still an oxen's tool for working hard. But it's a shared yoke, with weight falling on bigger shoulders than yours. Someone with more pulling power is up front helping. Suddenly you are participating in life's responsibilities with a great Partner-and now that frown can turn into a smile, and that gripe into a song.

Application:

Those three words bring comfort to my soul every time I say them, "Come unto me!" Jesus desires for us to come to Him every day and allow Him to refresh our body, soul and spirit. When we do not "Come unto me" because we are too busy, or too frustrated, too angry, too confused, too offended, too whatever, then we are playing into the hands of the devil. His desire is to separate us from our life source, Jesus, by keeping us from our Master's feet.

A very important message for each of us today is that before we "Go ye into all of the world" we must "Come unto Me" (Jesus) with all of our struggles, problems, fears. I have had people tell me, "I read my bible every day, pray, worship, but I don't seem to be changing. That my friend, is the problem. We just go through the motions of Bible reading and prayer, then move right into "Go ye into" whatever we have going on, and we wonder why our attitude stinks. If you would like to know if you need an attitude check let me give you a sure way of testing it. Do you blame your problems, family, finances, on other people or other things? My friend, if you are struggling with your attitude and moodiness, it will never get any better as long as you blame other people. It is easier to blame others than it is to realize that the problem is you. It is easier to blame friends, your church, pastors, town, spouse. But why not right now, look at yourself. I don't like to do that, but if I want to change then do it I must.

I must "Come" unto Jesus, not just READ His Word, but think on it, meditate, speak it out loud. Then, refuse to get up from the feet of Jesus until the Word has saturated me so much that I am changed. When Jesus says "Come unto me" He is asking you to bring your: broken heart, misunderstandings, heavy heart, offense, anger, frustrations, concerns, worries, lack of joy, fears, mood swings, unto Him and let Him ease your burden. He wants to do that EVERY SINGLE DAY, in fact several times a day.

Such a valuable lesson for us all to learn. "Come unto me" BEFORE you "Go ye into the world!"

Prayer:

"Jesus, too often I take off into the world, going about my day, taking care of all the 'stuff' that I need to, and I haven't stopped long enough to sit at your feet, and lean back against You and feel Your heart beat. Please forgive me for "going into" before I "come unto" You. That is how I get burned out, and stay frustrated because I am going before coming. I choose to change that today. In Jesus name, amen!"