In Matthew 11:29-30 I read, “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.” (NIV)
If I’m living life on overload, It’s because I’m trying to control too much. I think it all depends on me. I believe things like, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me. I’ve got to hold it all together. I’ve got to make it all work.”
The truth is that I am not the general manager of the universe. The greater my need to control, the more stressed I’ll be.
Jesus has a different plan: “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 NIV).
But taking something else on? That too sounds like an addition to my burden. I don’t need to take on more. I’m already carrying way too much!”
We need to take another look at what Jesus is saying here in Matthew 11 when he tells me to take his yoke on myself. Not growing up on a farm, I have not really seen a yoke. A yoke is a single piece of wood that brings two farm animals together, so they can share the burden of a load. A yoke is not a harness. When you put a harness on one animal, it has to pull the whole load. But with a yoke, you team up two or more animals, so the load is shared; it’s lightened. A yoke makes life easier on the animal, not harder.
So when Jesus tells me to take his yoke upon myself, it’s like he’s saying, “I never meant for you to carry all your problems by yourself. Let me help you! Team up with me, partner with me, and I will help you carry the load.”
So If I’m feeling stressed right now in a situation, it means I’m not yoked to Jesus Christ. Stress is a warning sign. It tells me that I’m trying to control things and carry too much on my own.
Every time I get disconnected from Jesus, the stress in my life will go up. I may be a follower of Jesus Christ, but if I’m overloaded at this moment, I am not yoked up to him.
But every time I get reconnected and yoked up, Jesus helps me pull the load. And my stress goes down.
It’s tempting to think that the antidote to stress is escape. But the problem is that stress is in my mind—so I end up taking it with me wherever you go. I can be just as stressed lying on a white sandy beach as I am right in the middle of my problems at home.
The answer is to give up control, to accept the yoke of Jesus. And when I do, God will give me peace.
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