We’ve looked at 5 Reasons Why We Don’t Experience a Light Burden. We’ve examined the possibility that we may be carrying a burden that’s not ours and considered how to cast your cares on the Lord. We’ve also looked at the possibility that God has trusted you with something of value and how we can know if we’re trusting God. We’ve reminded ourselves that God’s ready to help and how to be yoked with Jesus. I told you 4 things I’ve learned to do when the yoke is uncomfortable and discussed how to keep your focus on  the ultimate purpose. You’ve got 4 Questions to Define Your Destiny. and considered if we’ve forgotten about each other. We’ve even discussed 4 ways we can practically bear one another’s burdens.

Since Jesus said  in Matthew 11:29-30:

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.” (New International Version)

When our experience is not easy or light, we need to know how we can put down and pick up. May you experience the the righteousness, peace and joy that are earmarks of the Kingdom.

We’re looking at 5 Reasons Why We Don’t Experience a Light Burden. We’ve looked at the possibility that we may be carrying a burden that’s not ours and examined how to Cast Our Cares on the Lord. We’ve also looked at the possibility that God has trusted us with something of value and how we can know if we’re trusting God. We’ve reminded ourselves that God’s ready to help and how to be yoked with Jesus. Now let’s look at 4 ways we can practically do this.

Here’s what I’ve learned to do when the yoke seems uncomfortable or downright painful:

1. Find a Psalm

I find a Psalm that resonates with my emotion and I camp out on it for a while. I’ll memorize it, meditate on it, and pray it out. I find it helps to know someone else thousands of years ago felt the same way I feel now. It encourages me to see them choosing to praise God in spite of their complaint at the moment. Often, if it’s a Davidic Psalm I know his story and know how God answered his cry despite his mistakes and sin and treachery of those around him. If God did that for David, I know He’ll do it for me.

2.  Pour out my heart

I pour out my heart to God. I do this in private. It’s between me and Him. I let Him know my hurts and pains and disappointments.

I pour out my complaint before him;
before him I tell my trouble. Psalm 142:2 (New International Version)

You can entrust your compliant to a mature Christian friend, but be very careful you don’t encourage a weaker one to stumble.

3. Choose to be Thankful

I turn my complaint to praise. I don’t do that because I necessarily feel like it all the time. I do it because that’s what I most often see in the Psalms of lament. Praise is a choice and the best way to choose praise is to choose first to be thankful.

4. Wait to Listen – Soak

“Wait to listen?” you might be thinking, “I’ve done that, nothing happened.”

So wait longer.

“But I can’t hear Him.”

Yes you can. You’re His sheep, you know His voice.

“But He doesn’t speak to me.”

Yes He does. Make the time to learn to listen. Take the time to be still and know.

Waiting is a disciple and it takes time to develop. Most people find no value in disciplines because they don’t discipline themselves to see the benefits. They quit too soon.

Then they say “I’ve done that already” and they give up. And when they give up they choose to believe their feelings instead of trust their God.

That leads us to the fourth reason I’ve come up with why we don’t experience a light burden. We’ll look at that next post in this series.

We’re looking at 5 Reasons Why We Don’t Experience a Light Burden. We’ve looked at the possibility that we may be carrying a burden that’s not ours and examined how to Cast Our Cares on the Lord. We’ve also looked at the possibility that God has trusted us with something of value and how we can know if we’re trusting God. We’ve reminded ourselves that God’s ready to help. Now let’s discuss how to not grow weary.
There are two types of yokes in agrarian societies. We don’t know which one Jesus was talking about when He said “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The purpose of each yoke is to make the job easier.

Did you catch that?

All the motifs in the Old Testament and most of them in the New use the yoke to illustrate a  negative burden. But the yoke in society makes the job easier.

The first kind of yoke and the one we may all think of first is the one that binds two animals, usually oxen, to each other.

When the Bible says “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14) This is the motif it’s using. By the way we use that verse for marriage all the time, but in context it has nothing to do with marriage. The principle applies to marriage, but even more appropriately to business partnerships.

When a young ox is being trained in the yoke, it is placed with an older more experienced one. The older one carries the brunt of the load. Most of the weight is put upon him. The younger one must learn to pace itself, not too fast, and not too slow. It learns when to start and stop. It learns from it’s partner how to be in “relationship”.

This is like Jesus. He asks us to let Him train us in life. Let Him carry the heavy burden while we depend upon Him.

As the lead ox, Jesus walks at a steady pace. If you pace yourself with Him, your burden will be easy.

• If you take a passive approach to the relationship, you’ll be painfully dragged along in the yoke, because Jesus keeps walking.
• If you try to race ahead or turn off in another direction, the yoke will chafe your neck and your life will be uncomfortable.

The key to a restful yoke relationship with Jesus is to learn from Him and open yourself to His gentleness and humility. Next time I’ll show you how to practically keep in step with God.

We’re looking at 5 Reasons Why We Don’t Experience a Light Burden. We’ve looked at the possibility that we may be carrying a burden that’s not ours and examined how to Cast Our Cares on the Lord. We’ve also looked at the possibility that God has trusted us with something of value and how we can know if we’re trusting God. Now let’s look at reason #3 why we may not experiencing carrying a light load – Are We Supposed to Carry the Burden Ourself?
There are many times when all that we can see are the huge burdens we carry upon our shoulders.

We see how weak we are.
We see how tired we are.
We know how exhausted we have been.

But we do not see God’s hand reaching out to help us. We do not see the strength being offered us when our own strength is no longer enough.

Maybe we’ve stepped out in faith and bigger challenges came instead of blessing. Maybe we feel so alone, and the only person who has ever been there to support us suddenly leaves, never ever to return. We feel helpless and broken. And we do not have the strength anymore to face the challenges that come our way.

You may think of how limited your resources are at the moment, but a better opportunity may already be on its way.
You may think you’ve lost everyone who has ever cared for you, and yet the one who will love you like you’ve never been loved before may just be standing outside the door, knocking, hoping you would just open the door and let him in.

There is a God who watches over us, and who sends His angels before us to guard us and to guide us along the path He has prepared for us. He will never let us down. He will not give us burdens too heavy for us to bear. We may think they’re too heavy, but He knows us better than we know ourselves. He will give us more strength, more power, more endurance than we believed we could ever possess. So just hang in there a minute more. Hold on to Hope.

We’ll discuss next time how we keep from growing weary.

What do you do to not grow weary? Love to have your thoughts in this discussion.

We’re looking at 5 Reasons Why We Don’t Experience a Light Burden. We’ve looked at the possibility that we may be carrying a burden that’s not ours and examined how to Cast Our Cares on the Lord. Now we need to consider that God may have entrusted us with a burden for a special reason.

Sometimes we do not understand that burdens we carry are something God has entrusted to us – because He trusts us with them.

We may be carrying a far bigger burden, but have we ever cared to know the resources given us to be able to carry it? We were so busy comparing the size of our burden’s with our neighbors’, but have we ever cared to compare the strength we have with the strength that they possess?

Every test that you have experienced is the kind that normally comes to people. But God keeps his promise, and he will not allow you to be tested beyond your power to remain firm; at the time you are put to the test, he will give you the strength to endure it, and so provide you with a way out. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

The burden given you is in direct proportion to your strength. The pain you bear is in direct proportion to the tolerance that you possess.

You’re God’s treasure that He’s shining up. He trusts you with every burden He gives you.

He’s not giving you more than you can handle.

I know some are saying, “I just wish He didn’t trust me so much.”

“It feels like I’m passing through the waters alone. It feels like I’m being swept away in the raging river. It feels like the flames have set me ablaze.”

Is it a matter of “I Feel” or “I Trust”?

Often when we say “I feel” it shows who we trust. Are you trusting your feelings or are you trusting God?

The context of Jesus’ light burden starts in verse 25 of Matthew 11:

At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

What makes child-like faith so precious to God? It’s their trust.

How do you know you’re trusting God? Leave your comments below.

How to Carry a Light Load
a message by Trevor Lund

If you’ve read the gospels you may have come across Jesus’ statement that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. People often ask “What does that mean and how can I have it?” This message has some clues for us. By Trevor Lund.

Immediately download the MP3 to listen to on any device.

Download audio file (LightLoad.mp3)

Buy Now

Immediately download the MP3 from Expectancy Press.

About the Speaker:

Trevor Lund is a Christian Speaker, Author and Lead Dreamer for Expectancy Ministries. He lives with his beautiful wife and kids in Edmonton Canada and blogs at RevTrev.com

Truth:

You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:22-24 (New International Version)

Thought:

The Bible is so rich with metaphors that we can see in the natural. When you think about it, how else could the created understand the Creator? We recognize our language and experience is limited by our mortality, but at the same time we realize it is God who has revealed Himself to us.

That thought alone makes me stop and worship. I wish I could relay it more profoundly.

Here’s one that makes me go “Ah ha!”

The moon does not have its own light, but reflects the light of the sun to the part of the world that’s away from the light. There are two things that happen to stop the light from the sun being reflected to the world. They both have to do with the position of the moon.

1. When the world comes between the moon and sun – whose light it was created to reflect to the part of the world that’s away from the sun – it’s called a lunar eclipse. The shadow of the world covers the face of the moon that reflects the light of the sun.
2. The moon is also able to come between the sun and the side of the world that is directly receiving its light. The shadow of the moon covers a portion of the earth instead of reflecting the suns light to the side of the world that is away from the sun. We call that a solar eclipse.

However, there is also a time when the moon is in the perfect position to reflect the greatest amount of the light of the sun to the part of the world that is away from the sun. It is the brightest, biggest moon of the year and it happens in the Northern Hemisphere in the Fall. We happen to call that the “harvest moon.”

The same is true for us. We reflect the goodness of God by choosing to grow the fruit of Spirit that reflects His good nature. It puts us in the position to reflect the greatest amount of His light to the part of the world that is still in darkness.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control together show the nature of Jesus to the world.  And there are two truths about fruit we need to be aware of.

The first is – Fruit happens. Jesus is the vine; we are the branches. When we abide in Him, we bear much fruit. It’s as natural as the moon reflecting the light from the sun to the side of the world that’s away from the sun. The lesson is abiding in the vine.

The second truth is – we need to tend an orchard.  This thought doesn’t contradict the first, although I admit I’m mixing metaphors.  Growing in the fruit of the Spirit is a choice we make, as well as a series of choices throughout the day. We will constantly need to choose love, joy, peace and patience. We will have opportunity to choose kindness, goodness and faithfulness. Conditions will be conducive for us to not wish to choose gentleness and self-control.

So does fruit just happen, or do we tend the tree?

Both.

Learn how to abide and fruit just happens. Abiding means keeping in step with the rhythms of the master and in our fallen state it is a choice to reflect the light of the sun to the side of the world that’s away from the sun.

The next few days we’ll be encouraged to make that choice a habit.

Prayer:

Thank you, Lord, that when I abide in You, Your words abide in me and I can ask whatever I want and it will be given to me. Teach me to abide. Thank You, Holy Spirit, You will empower me to put on and grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Challenge:

If you could show God to the world in any way that reflects His goodness and Glory, how would you do it? Pray and obey. There are things you can do today that will see that prayer fulfilled. Do them.

Declaration:

I choose to reflect the light of the Son to the side of the world that’s away from the Son. I choose to put on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.