COME TO ME
Mat 11:28-30: Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
Vs. 28
“Come to Me” is an imperative meaning to “come here.” It is imperative (“of vital importance, crucial”) that we learn this or we will live a life of laboring “for the Lord” and miss the blessedness of finding our rest in Him. Indeed there is much to be done in our kingdoms work but it becomes much easier when we approach it after we have entered into His rest and allow Him to do through us what we might think is impossible.
“you who labor and are heavy laden.”
Many times when we start laboring about something we start laboring harder to figure out a way to deal with what we are laboring about, when He says to simply come to Him, yes, I said “simply.” A victorious life in Him is that simple, that is the reason He said it is “imperative” that we learn this, and that is the reason Satan will war against us to keep us from discovering this truth and to keep us from enjoying the fruitful life our Father has in store for us.
For example, when I first got saved I can remember telling someone, “The more I do for Him the more He will bless me.” Pretty soon it became a duty to serve Him rather than a pleasure. Looking back now I can see I was focused on the blessings rather than the Blesser and when the blessings didn’t come as I thought they should, I became very frustrated with myself, wondering if I was doing something wrong and worked even harder to try to please Him.
Indeed, He does want to bless us, but the blessings should never be the motivation for doing anything for Him. Our motivation should always be to serve Him out of a sense of gratitude rather than duty. Very soon in my walk with Him I became so heavy laden by this sense of duty that I remember having the thoughts, “I wasn’t this miserable before I got saved.” Satan had me where he wanted me and he used ‘church work’ to do it.
Fortunately, God sent a new pastor into my life that helped me understand that God was pleased with me simply because I was in His Son, “had blessed me with all spiritual blessings in Christ” Ephesians1:3) the very instant I received Him as my Savior, and as it became apparent to me that I was serving Him out of a sense of duty rather than appreciation for what He had done for me, I started searching His Word to discover what all the blessings are. That has been over forty years ago and I am still discovering His blessings for me and as He blesses, as He intended to do from the onset, I find it much easier to just live in the overflow of that and share my Savior’s great love with others. Thank You, Father.
If Satan can use ‘church work’ to get us discouraged just think what he can do with the cares of the world. We all have them and one of Satan’s favorite tactics against us is to use them to “choke out the Word, and cause it to become unfruitful” (Mark 4:18-19), but fortunately our Savior encourages us to “cast all your care on Him because He cares for us,” (1st Peter 5:7) just another way He says to us “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Vs.29
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;”
The word “yoke” means “a coupling or servitude.” In other words, that to which we couple ourselves we will become servants to. Before I was saved the yoke that I was coupled to was primarily one of fear that manifested itself in the form of anger and hatred, and I suffered the consequences of a life filled by angry outbursts, fear of just about everyone that developed into a hatred of myself and others, a hatred that was consuming me without being aware of what was going on. I developed a tough guy routine to cover my fears, I was a real “man’s man” (in my mind at least) not understanding why I was so fearful.
Then came the Jesus people, the same people that I had developed a hatred for and the God they served. They came to my home telling me about a God that loved me and wanted to forgive me of all my sin. God used a series of events to soften my heart so I would at least listen to what they had to say. Finally, I repented of my sin and received Him as my Savior, but as I shared earlier I was still in servitude to fear until He broke that bondage for me. Jesus’ implication here is He has a different kind of yoke that He wants us to learn about and be coupled to. What does He want us to learn about this new yoke?
For starters, “I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest for your souls.”
He is “meek,” meaning “gentle.” God does not deal with us in anger when we mess up, but in gentleness, constantly calling us to turn from our way of dealing with cares and simply come to Him. The goodness, the kindness of God leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).
He is “lowly in heart.”
The word “lowly” means “depressed, humiliated, cast down.” Now would be a good time to read Isaiah 53 and let its words sink deep into your soul. Jesus suffered great depression as He said “my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38), then He endured the humiliating death of a cross to make a way of salvation for us, He allowed Himself to be cast down so that we could be lifted up to find rest for our weary souls.
Vs.30
“For my yoke is easy,”
The word “easy” means “employed, that is, (by implication) useful (in manner or morals): – better, easy, good (-ness), gracious, kind.” It also means “to furnish what is needed.”
There was nothing easy about the yoke I was coupled to for years. My employer had nothing useful, good, gracious, or kind, and on payday— only misery. But, His yoke is always all that my yoke was not and will always furnish everything we need to deal with any care that might arise in our lives.
“my burden is light.”
Do you know any Christians that are constantly “burdened?” They will usually remind you of all the things they are burdened about. I remember one sister in the Lord that was constantly sharing all her burdens with everyone and though I don’t know her heart it seemed to me that she was more worried than truly burdened, even one of her favorite hymns was “I won’t have to worry any more,” (seems like the lyrics teach us that this life is one constant struggle but praise God “I’ll get to rest” when I reach the other shore— what about resting in Him now). I know we all have things to come into our lives that cause us worry but to stay in a constant state of worry is a sin that will rob us of the rest He has in store for us. In light of what Jesus has been teaching us in these three verses we need to examine ourselves to see if we are doing the same, if we find we are guilty look to Phillipians 4:6-7 for some help:
4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, (or, don’t worry about anything) but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God (His rest) which passes all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
We should all be burdened about the things that are important to God but if we become immobilized by worry what good are we to others, ourselves, or God. If the burden is anything other than “light” and becomes too heavy for us to bear, maybe we need to examine the source of the burden, come to Him, and allow Him to give us rest once again. Also He has given us an entire network of helpers to assist us when our burdens get too heavy; it’s called the Body of Christ. Many times His rest will come when we get our pride out of the way and just ask someone for help (James 5:16).