[Some] take some things of Christ not the whole Christ. They think it’s only believing on Him as a Saviour for pardon of sin; they do not choose Him as Lord to whom in all obedience they resign themselves. This is indeed the rock that splits many, tell them of believing in Christ, and they think that is only to rest on Him for salvation, they attend not that it is receiving of Christ for all ends and purposes God sent Him into the world.
Anthony Burgess

My Yoke Is Easy

My Yoke Is Easy

My Yoke Is Easy

By LUCILE ENLOW

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

Most Christians are carrying heavy loads which God never intended that they should carry. These unnecessary burdens keep us from hearing the ones we ought to bear, the prayer-burdens of the heart of God. So long as we are tugging at the Lord’s side of the yoke we are hindering the perfect teamwork to which He invites us. It is our side of the yoke that is easy. He will bear the burden and the heat of the day.

With a delightful sense of freedom, I have come to realize in fact that I have only my half of the bargain to keep. I am the one who may not be faithful. God can be depended upon.

So when He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” I will simply come. With my eyes upon the One altogether lovely, my heart aglow with the light of His countenance, I will come unto Him. He gives rest.

“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” How often have I “committed” a pressing need to my Lord, and then set about trying to bring it to pass, if not actually, at least in my mind?

Why should I sit up at night trying to figure out God’s half of the bargain? Mine is to commit. That done, I can safely go about other business, serenely sure that God can be relied on. If He says He will bring it to pass, He will bring it to pass.

“Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psalm 37:4). I used to slide over that part, hastily reminding the Lord that I was delighting myself in Him, and then spend my time yearning and longing for the desires of my heart. Such intense desires must be granted by their very intensity. But the intensity of my desires was not the condition of their fulfillment. “Delight thyself also in the Lord.” That is a pursuit worthy of time and eternity.

In delighting myself in the Lord, I am lost in His loveliness. I am so filled with love for my Saviour that I want whatever He wants with a consuming fire that burns out the dross of my own sin-stained desires. When I want only what will please Him, the Spirit of God prays within me the prayer of faith. I need not pry into His workings. He is bound by His Word to fulfill desires that have grown out of my sight in the Lord.

“No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psalm 84:11). How I have dwelt on God’s part of that promise! “No good thing will be withheld: NO GOOD THING. I should have been concentrating on walking uprightly. I wouldn’t have to spend so much time reminding God of His promise if I spent more time in fulfilling the conditions.

We have all heard the unsaved, or the worldly Christian say, “Oh, well, `All things work together for good.'” There is no period after “good.” The phrase that should concern us is: “to them that love God.”

It was such a relief to me to discover that I do not have to work things out. I have only to love God. I can concentrate on that. I will worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness – clothed in the robes of His own righteousness – and leave the working to Him. Even when my life is a busy one, all full of happenings, still the working is His. There is no fret or strain. I can sing His praises while He works in and through me. My meditation on Him shall be sweet. I will be glad in the Lord.

If I do not bring forth much fruit, I am not abiding in the vine. The tree planted by the rivers of water does nothing toward producing fruit but stays in the rich earth, drawing constantly upon its source of life.

I need not keep looking at those promises as if there were something the matter with them. The promises are true, but I am paying more attention to God’s part than to mine. “Abide in me.” I must stay right there all the time, not only when I want something, but all the time. God’s laws work and His Word cannot be broken.

The Word is full of promises to those who wait upon God. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31). We have so counted on that when we were weak and in need of strength. Yet we continue to faint and wail with the young men of the previous verse because we never learned what it means. Now, when I am weak, I do not worry about not having strength. I wait upon the Lord, It is a wonderful life – just waiting on God. It does not necessarily imply inactivity, though there should be quiet time before Him. It is a heart attitude. Wait upon the Lord. The miracle of renewed strength is the result of His working of His laws of the spiritual world. We need not agonize to be strong. We need to wait upon the Lord.

How free we are to live heavenward. God will take care of our earthly needs, as well as of the heavenly, while we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and we are changed into His image from glory to glory.

Do we want to be like Him? Behold the glory of the Lord! We cannot behold without being changed.

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