God, Why Won’t You Take This from Me?
“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
“God, why won’t you take this from me?” I asked the Lord for the umpteenth time. I had been carrying a burden, a weight, a responsibility, for so long, and cried out to Him so incessantly for relief, and so not gotten the relief I so desperately wanted, that it was unfathomable to me why He would not relieve me of the load I carried when I wanted to be free from it so I could be more available to love and serve Him with all my heart. Why, when Jesus promises us that His yoke is easy and light if we come to Him and take it, and why when the Lord says we should cast our cares on Him and bear one another’s burdens, did I feel the burden was as heavy as ever? Why wouldn’t He see my magic wand waving in the air and answer me by taking the responsibility off of my plate? Oh, Lord!
“I am teaching you how to love in the midst of it all,” He replied. God ALWAYS knows what’s best and ALWAYS Has His plan, His purpose, His timing, for His glory. What did He mean He was teaching me how to love? What about the light yoke, casting of my cares, others bearing my burdens? Why did I still face this seemingly endless and overwhelming responsibility when I wanted almost nothing more than to have it at the very least lessened? But I did want something more, and therein lay the answer. More than anything, I want, to live to love, serve, worship, honor and revere God forever through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is preparing Christ’s followers for eternity with Him by conforming us to Christ, teaching us amid our trials and tribulations to love like Christ does. Unconditionally, continually, no matter the pressures, pains, persecutions, etc. It’s easy to love when we feel great and life is easy. But Christ loved even on the cross! He loved, and loves, perpetually. In considering this, I came to see how amid our trials we can take the yoke of Christ, cast our cares on Him, and have our burdens borne by others. No matter the physical weight upon us of everyday trials, we can learn to have the mental rest of knowing that God has a purpose in it all, to take refuge in God’s everlasting arms, to rest in the shelter of God’s wings, to find comfort by His Spirit, to trust in God and His ways, to become confident that despite the physical wait, we can mentally rest assured that those committed to following Jesus are in fact even amid life’s greatest challenges growing ever closer to God and becoming ever more like Christ in character. And, yes, we can learn to love no matter what we face, breath by breath, in the strength and for the glory of the Lord! Let’s rest in Him!
“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
“God, why won’t you take this from me?” I asked the Lord for the umpteenth time. I had been carrying a burden, a weight, a responsibility, for so long, and cried out to Him so incessantly for relief, and so not gotten the relief I so desperately wanted, that it was unfathomable to me why He would not relieve me of the load I carried when I wanted to be free from it so I could be more available to love and serve Him with all my heart. Why, when Jesus promises us that His yoke is easy and light if we come to Him and take it, and why when the Lord says we should cast our cares on Him and bear one another’s burdens, did I feel the burden was as heavy as ever? Why wouldn’t He see my magic wand waving in the air and answer me by taking the responsibility off of my plate? Oh, Lord!
“I am teaching you how to love in the midst of it all,” He replied. God ALWAYS knows what’s best and ALWAYS Has His plan, His purpose, His timing, for His glory. What did He mean He was teaching me how to love? What about the light yoke, casting of my cares, others bearing my burdens? Why did I still face this seemingly endless and overwhelming responsibility when I wanted almost nothing more than to have it at the very least lessened? But I did want something more, and therein lay the answer. More than anything, I want, to live to love, serve, worship, honor and revere God forever through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is preparing Christ’s followers for eternity with Him by conforming us to Christ, teaching us amid our trials and tribulations to love like Christ does. Unconditionally, continually, no matter the pressures, pains, persecutions, etc. It’s easy to love when we feel great and life is easy. But Christ loved even on the cross! He loved, and loves, perpetually. In considering this, I came to see how amid our trials we can take the yoke of Christ, cast our cares on Him, and have our burdens borne by others. No matter the physical weight upon us of everyday trials, we can learn to have the mental rest of knowing that God has a purpose in it all, to take refuge in God’s everlasting arms, to rest in the shelter of God’s wings, to find comfort by His Spirit, to trust in God and His ways, to become confident that despite the physical wait, we can mentally rest assured that those committed to following Jesus are in fact even amid life’s greatest challenges growing ever closer to God and becoming ever more like Christ in character. And, yes, we can learn to love no matter what we face, breath by breath, in the strength and for the glory of the Lord!
Let’s rest in Him!