LEARNING GOD’S WAYS

“Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” – Matthew 11: 29

Genuine Spiritual Growth and Maturity in Christ come through LEARNING GOD’S WAYS: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and LEARN FROM ME, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Mt.11: 28-30). In these few verses, Jesus invites people who are tired and weary to come to Him; people who are exhausted because they have been working hard, striving and struggling on their own, in their own strength. This could be due to having the wrong priorities or a wrong understanding of what God requires of them. Perhaps they have even been doing the wrong things. Whatever the case, their efforts have proved to be discouragingly futile. The Lord promises these weary souls relief, rest and refreshment.

Jesus dis not promise a rest from work: “And I will give you rest.” He actually invites us to take His yoke, a work implement. A yoke is a farming implement that joins two animals, such as oxen, together so that they can share the workload evenly and become more productive. Sometimes, an older, more experienced animal is yoked with a younger, less experienced animal, so that the older can train the younger while they work together. By using this illustration, the Lord is asking us to share and be partners with Him in His work, His ministry and service. He is also assuring that He will train us. In Judaism, every rabbi had their own “yoke” – their own interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures. The rabbi then passed on his own brand of teaching by living in community with his students.

The Lord wants us to come to Him and learn from Him in a continuing relationship. He will equip, teach, and guide us in His Ways – to be effective in life and service, if we allow Him. If we come to Jesus and do things His way, in partnership and communion with Him, He promises that we will find rest and refreshment for our souls. In the process, we will become more like Him: gentle or meek, and humble in heart. This is sweet and fulfilling work, because His yoke He gives is easy and His burden is light. His yoke is easy because: (1) Jesus shares it with us; (2) it is productive and useful, not vain and futile; (3) it is life-giving; and (4) it fits well – custom-fitted for us to fulfil life’s purpose. Our eternal Carpenter ensures that the yokes He fabricated, fit well and are shaped and suited to our individual destinies.

While His teaching and principles are the same for everyone, our various ministries and missions are different; each of us has been allocated “custom-fitted” ministries, purposes, and roles in life, which we manifest by actively partnering with Jesus and following His Ways. His light “burden” refers to our responsibilities as followers and servants of Jesus. But if we fulfil our role with Him close by, sharing the load, doing things His way, and in His strength, our work will not become burdensome.

The Pharisees added “heavy load” of copious legalistic stipulations to the Mosaic Law, which missed God’s intent of Justice, Mercy, and Faith (Mt.23:23). But God wants us to receive and experience the fullness of His Grace (Jh.1:16-17). He does not want us to be weighed down with unnecessary, religious regulations that miss His Grace and Mercy. In this New Covenant in particular, it takes understanding God’s Ways for us to not miss what He is doing and how He is doing it.

God cares so much about us; He wants us to come to Him, learn, know, and understand His Ways. How we get to know someone’s ways is by spending time with them. That’s the Secret to knowing God’s Ways. Learning God’s Ways means to come to Him, never run ahead of Him, always on time and staying in tune!