[Wednesday's Devotional] - Heavy

Is your burden heavy?  Perhaps you feel it is so heavy it is sapping your energy or your get-up-and-go?  Today we are contemplating the word “heavy” in our verse for the week:

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
Matthew 11:28 [NASB]

Perhaps we would benefit from looking at how Jesus continues in this passage:

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.   For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 
Matthew 11: 29-30

Now the word “yoke” is not one that we use a lot these days, is it?  The Jews used it more often as it was a word more relevant to the farming methods they would have known.  I am sure you can picture 2 animals attached by a yoke to a plough, the way things worked before the traction engine or tractor came along.  Jesus talks about his yoke being easy – but hold on a minute, we were talking about being heavy-laden and now Jesus wants us to put on a yoke?  Doesn’t that add to the weight we are carrying?

I like to imagine that we are pulling together, sharing the yoke with Jesus – he is walking alongside us and pulling with us in the same direction.  We are putting off the heavy load and sharing with him the easy yoke and light burden that results from walking alongside him.

If your load is heavy, perhaps it is because you are pulling the plough on your own – or going in a different direction.  Imagine a ploughed field where the furrows are not straight lines – how unproductive is that?  Set your eye on the distant goal and connect to the yoke of Jesus today.

Lord, thank you that the yoke you offer us is easy, well-fitting and light-weight as we share in the power you give us for our journey today.  Help us to keep in step with you and pulling in the same direction, Amen.

Dave MacLellan