Taking Up His Yoke

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

If we take his yoke, if we bow to his Lordship, if we yield to his relentless love, two things begin to happen: First, we begin to learn. Learn from me, he says. Christ himself is our teacher, and under his tutelage the secrets of life begin to unfold to us. We begin to understand ourselves. We begin to understand why men act the way they do, and what is going on in the world, and what is behind the strange currents of human life that reflect themselves in the pages of our newspapers. What are these powerful forces? How do they operate? The Holy Spirit becomes our teacher. We are taught by the Spirit only when we take Christ's yoke upon us.

And the curriculum is outlined for us here, too. What is the subject matter? What shall we study? Learn from me, he says, for I am gentle and humble in heart. Our whole subject matter will be gentleness and humility; that is, the secrets of inner beauty. Anyone can obtain a form of outward beauty. If nature does not give it to you, then you can buy it in little boxes. But it is inner beauty that makes a person attractive, that makes him or her wanted and desired. This is nothing more than gentleness and humility. Gentleness is strength under control; humility is selflessness. This is the course of study.

Then we discover rest: You shall find rest for your souls. Soul rest! The soul is the mind, the emotions, and the will. This is a rest that affects us mentally, emotionally, and volitionally. How does it appear? Jesus goes on to tell us, For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. That which seems to us to be so restricting, the yoke of Christ, that limitation he has put upon us, that control he exercises in our lives, which at first seems to be narrow, restrictive, binding us down and holding us back, we discover, when we yield to it, to be easy and light. This comes as a delightful discovery. We find that to yield to his control is the key to true liberty. To surrender to his desire is to find the greatest enjoyment. To give up, and to give in, is the only way to really begin to give out.

Lord, I want to learn of you, and discover the rest only you can give.