your burden

At the end of Matthew 11 it is written:

At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

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."


Sometimes when I get hooked into striving, the Holy Spirit reminds me of these verses. There is nothing in the entire world more healing than the words of Jesus Christ.

We tend to see sin in varying degrees -- you know, this one is worse than that one...and another easy tendency is to "punish" ourselves. Jesus offers forgiveness, but sometimes we think that we need to go to great lengths to absolve ourselves. For some people it's as if they think their sin is too great to accept His grace -- they feel the need to suffer.

But His word to us is, "...For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." So if we're struggling under a hard yoke, and heavy burden -- what's going on? Who put it there: The enemy? Other people? Ourselves?

If it goes against His word, than it's NOT from Him.