We are going to have a look at a scripture in the book of Matthew. Here it is.
Matthew 11 v 28-30
“28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Many Christians think this scripture means we will and should expect easy lives, like we will have no hard challenges in life. Why so? Because Jesus says his yolk is easy and burden is light.
But in fact, this scripture comes into play when a situation in our lives becomes overwhelming, the scripture means when we are overwhelmed, we surrender it to Jesus in Prayer, because he says come to me. What Jesus is saying is when we have a problem bigger than us, we can hand it over to Jesus.
Jesus is saying you should take your eyes off the problem, let Jesus deal with it, and in the meantime serve him and learn more about Jesus. But what does serving look like? It could be that you get involved with some church activity and serve in a welcome team, or volunteer to help out in some way. What do we mean by learn more about Jesus? It means attending church regularly and making sure you get to church to hear teaching that will help you learn more about Jesus, staying connected with the word of God.
In times of difficulty and crisis it is important not to isolate yourself, serving and attending church allows you to stay connected in the body of Christ, letting people know how you can be prayed for and to ensure you stay in an atmosphere of encouragement and positivity which the church does provide or should provide.
Being on your own means you give the enemy room to attack you with all kinds of thoughts, here are examples of what the enemy could say, “you can’t get out of this situation”, or, “no one is going to help you”, by staying in touch with church family and friends it enables you to stay focused through a trial knowing that people are there for you and care about you, the enemy will find it much harder to dent your confidence when you stay connected knowing the promises of God.
What else does Matthew 11 v 28-30 mean. This scripture was given during the time of Jesus ministry. This was when the pharisee were putting the yokes of religion on people (harsh expectations), Jesus was also challenging religious institutions that put burdens on people that Jesus wants us to live free from.
Let’s conclude
Matthew 11 v 28-30 is all about laying problems at Jesus feet. It is not always about Jesus plonking you into a field of roses, on a beautiful blue-sky day to get rest, or even Jesus finding you a Royal Caribbean cruise for you to rest on. We are not saying you cannot go on holiday, it might well be you need a rest.
We are just saying the true meaning of Matthew 11v28-30 is, when things get to hard for us we have Jesus to turn to, and while trials and hardships are being sorted out, you should focus time on serving and learning more about Jesus.