Take My Yoke

COME TO ME

(Matt 11:28-30 NIV) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

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."

(Message) Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

(CEV) If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. Take the yoke I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me. I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest. This yoke is easy to bear, and this burden is light.

If life, work, your responsibilities, any concerns, or anything else wearing you out? Are you tired, weary or burdened? Do you need rest? Yeshua wants to help.

(John 15:5) "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.

(CEV) I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you stay joined to me, and I stay joined to you, then you will produce lots of fruit. But you cannot do anything without me.

If you want to accomplish anything you need to stay connected to Messiah. Apart from this you can do nothing. So abiding or living in Messiah is where it all begins..

TAKE MY YOKE

(Jer 1:5 NIV) "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

(Message) Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations - that's what I had in mind for you."

(Gal 1:15-16 NIV) But when God, who set me apart from birth and called me by His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles,

(Eph 2:10 NIV) For we are God's workmanship, created in Messiah Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Jeremiah and Paul knew that even before they were born God had a plan for their lives. It’s the same for everyone of us. God has a specific plan for each of us. If we are not working according to the plans which He created for us, things won’t go easy. There will be lots of friction and we won’t find things to be easy. It will be exhausting, burden us, way us down, and tire us out. But on the other hand, when we discover God’s yoke, calling or purpose for our life, things will be different. They may still tire us out, but they will NOT wear you out or be a burden to you. I may be exhausted after speaking, but I am not worn out, thinking how can I ever do this again. I say, I’ll get some rest, and go right back to doing it again!

For example

A leader was called to help a church staff that was struggling. He met with the staff one day to offer help. First he asked each person what ministry were they serving in. Then he asked them what they were passionate about in life. He immediately found the problem. None of them were serving in an area they were passionate about.

He told about one minister that was serving as a Senior pastor of a large church who was unhappy or unfulfilled to some degree. He found out this man loved to sit down and comfort people. He loved to encourage people and pray with them. He even loved doing this with people in the hospital. The leader shared with him that he should consider giving up his position as senior pastor and become a pastor of visitation. Then man said he would think about this because in some ways this would seem like a demotion. A year later this man came to say hello to this leader at a conference and to thank him for their time together. He told him that he took his advise and switched jobs and has been so happy and fulfilled in his new position as pastor of visitation.

Wrong yoke 5 minutes feels like forever

Right yoke 5 hours feels like 5 minutes. (Time flies by. You think, "Where’s the time go?" "Is it over yet?" "Give me more! I want more!"

i.e., My baseball glove allows and enables me to catch a ball.. Can I give this glove to my 8 year old daughter Gita? NO! It’s way to big for her, and she is a lefty (I am a righty). It may be a great glove, but it’s a wrong fit for her.

If you want to enjoy your work and responsibilities, and not be burdened or worn out by it, you need to take God’s yoke. But first, you need to learn from Him or find out what He has called and created you to do! It won’t be a wrong fit so you will be able to do, without it killing you in the process.

YOKE

A wooden bar or frame by which two animals (as oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together

In order to yoke two animals:

-The horns should be matched in their length, shape and position.

-They should have a straight back. They should not be too fat or two thin. The bones should be healthy and strong. The team should be well-matched in these qualities.

-The team should be evenly matched in length and height, as well as, coat color.

-A well matched team is two animals with the same coloring, horn shape, face markings.

-But of far more importance to the team matching in appearance, is that the team matches in their willingness to work. The travel and gait of the pair should be the same speed and length of step, with their heads held at the same angle.

Miscellaneous thoughts about being yoked:

Can an animal from any breed of cattle learn to be an ox?

Yes. But some take more time than others because of temperament, and past experiences.

Can you yoke a trained ox with an untrained ox, or a large ox with a small ox?

Of course it will be more difficult, but it is possible to yoke a trained and an untrained ox together, with the hopeful result that the untrained ox will learn from the trained animal. But, because it is too hard to fit equipment, and the animals are too different in strength, it does not work very well to yoke a large and a small animal together.

Can two yoked oxen pull more than double the weight of that which two single oxen could pull combined?

Yes, two oxen yoked together can pull more than double the combined weight two single oxen could pull, if the conditions, training, and capability of the teamster are optimum.