Come to me, all 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. Matthew 11:28-30

We are on God’s “A” team.

We are on a team, and it’s an “A” team. We are teamed up with the best in the business. Today’s study is about this “yoke” a Christian wears which is indicative of our relationship with God: take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. The “yoke” is not a bad or demanding thing as one might think. This is descriptive language to illustrate our union with God and that we are together, work together, facilitate a spiritual dynamic together, and function as one unit with two entities; God and me.

This phrase, take my yoke upon you, is a picture analogy of our relationship with God.  I visualize the “yoke” we have with God as something like this: When we pull ahead of God with a burst of independence, He slows us down and moderates our activities. When we fall or drag behind and begin to fade or give up, God lifts us up and pulls or carries us along.

The yoke tethers God and us together in a good way, not as a forced behavior but as a loving friendship. The yoke is an interesting concept. Once yoked, we are unable to act independent of God.  God is in us and with us, and we cannot move independent of His presence. This binds us in a secure relationship with God that is so tight that it cannot be broken.

“Take my yoke upon you” is active. Active, again? We take it upon us. Why would we want to do this? Why do we do this? Why the word, yoke? A yoke suggests a joining, a binding together, an interdependence. We willing take His yoke upon us, but, I believe, God is the one who does the binding and is the lead person in the relationship, just like with a team of horses there is the dominate lead animal or even a lead dog on a dogsled team.

We cannot operate as mavericks in our spiritual life. The spiritual life is not designed to be an independent venture. It is just the opposite. The child of God spends their days in a position of yielding their will to God, the Father’s will. It is an essential part of the “binding” in our yoke with God. We are bound to our heavenly Father for the purpose of learning from Him and of Him.

Everywhere we go God is with us, teaching us, guiding us, helping us, and strengthening us. We are not alone in our endeavors, and it is God’s intention for us to achieve and succeed for He is here, yoked with us, to make sure the mission is accomplished. The success of the mission is dependent upon what we learn and absorb and the person we become in our Christ-likeness and Spirit-living.

God’s yoke is a gift to us. It keeps us on track and it helps us when we are weak or self-willed. Just watch a team of horses or cattle bound together with a harness apparatus or yoke, and you will see that they must work together or they will be at odds and little will be accomplished and much will be confused or ruined.

We desperately need God to temper us and guide us. God’s yoke is a kindness to us, not a burden inhibiting our progress. God is becoming our strength in all areas of our lives and we are learning to depend and trust in Him with our daily stuff and our scary stuff.

It is a relief to know that our spiritual success is not only up to us, for we are weak and easily distracted, instead it is up to God to help make a way for us through the wilderness of living this crazy life along with its struggles and joys, sorrows and blessings.

Soon we will know and enjoy the gift that we receive, what we learn deep in our souls, which the Giver gives to us from out of the “learning,” of a child with his Master Teacher.

You are on the A team.

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©N. L. Brumbaugh

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