Check Your Yoke: How Jesus Gives Us True Rest
“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.”—Matthew 11:28-29 (ESV)
As I slept and rested and ate during my retreat, something did change—not in my circumstances, but in my own heart. My defenses began to crumble. My heart began to soften. Finally, I began to listen.
I picked up my Bible and began to read. I don’t even remember what I read, but I began to feel like the Word was coming alive to me again. It was starting to resonate and make sense.
As with Elijah, God did not come in winds, earthquakes or fires. It was in the quiet space of my retreat that He used His Word to speak in a gentle, low whisper. “What are you doing here, Vera?” (my paraphrase of 1 Kings 19:13)
“Come to Me”
While sleep may be the most obvious starting point for rest, it is by no means the same as rest. We can sleep well but still be restless at the soul level. I was depressed, and in that state, no amount of sleep felt enough.
However, it is also possible that we can have a lot on our heart and mind that prevents us from sleeping but still be at peace. We might not be able to settle down due to bodily pain or discomfort but still be rested in heart. How can that be?
This is because the real rest we are looking for comes from a relationship with Christ. Jesus says “Come to Me,” not a solution or activity or hack. Any solution for rest that falls short of this will only provide surface-level rest. For that reason, Netflix—as my preferred choice of rest—would never completely satisfy, because it cut me off from God, not bring me closer to Him.
Maybe you have a different self-care method but as long as we are banking all our hopes on it for our rest, we will eventually be disappointed. It only satisfies superficially. It doesn’t know us, our circumstances, or our need.
So how does coming to Christ give us true rest?
Learn From the Gentle and Lowly One
Before my retreat, my perspective was completely off. I interpreted the events and circumstances of my life as God’s punishment, not blessing. I kept feeding this faulty understanding as I cut myself off from Him.
What I needed was God’s interpretation of life. Basically, I needed a major reset, one based on Scripture. This is what setting aside time with God and His Word can do. We have space to read and wrestle with truth from the one who is gentle and lowly.
When life is busy and hectic, I didn’t have time to revisit the truths that I knew. After the physical rest I received the previous day, I was finally ready to receive these truths that would reorient my heart in a new direction. I finally could learn from Him.
My circumstances didn’t change, but he began to change my heart. I began to understand suffering. I began to see that in His sovereignty He is doing good right in the midst of them, with Anah as His chosen tool to make me more like Christ (Rom. 8:28-29).
As long as I was exhausted and worn out, I did not have the bandwidth to really soak in Scripture. But these were also the very words my grieving heart had to hear. This is where true rest comes from.
Surrendering My Yoke to Take His
As I began to open up my heart to God again, I found the courage to face the facts about my life. This adoption was beyond what I ever imagined. My marriage was a mess. I had lost our “perfect” little family.
This time of rest gave me the time I needed to grieve. Reconnecting with God gave me the courage to look at my messed-up life. Instead of trying to escape, accepting Jesus’ invitation of rest helped me to face it.
I always find it interesting that Jesus does not invite us to abandon our yokes. Rather, He has a curious command: “Take my yoke upon you.” From this, I learned three things:
First, this implies that there is still a yoke for me to bear. There is still a responsibility for me to carry with Anah’s care. He’s not calling me to abandon my post.
A yoke also implies that He is with me as I carry out these tasks. A yoke is meant to join two oxen together as one so they can bear the load and pull together in tandem. Jesus invites me to get in his yoke with Him.
Which brings me to my last lesson. This is His yoke, not mine. He’s not promising to help me with my agenda. Rather, I am invited to join Him with His purposes for this circumstance.
Sometimes the yokes we insist on carrying are heavy because they are not His at all. How often I carry burdens that were not intended for me.
The burden of doing this “perfectly”—whatever that meant.
The burden of being or looking happy in a hard situation.
The burden of being strong when I felt overwhelmed.
The burden of being a good example to others, including my kids and church family.
All of these things are not part of his yoke for me. His yoke is light. These were things I expected of myself. I made things so much harder than He intended for me.
So another way that Christ gives rest is not by taking away our burdens but helping me to exchange the heavy burdens I had put on myself for the true load He was asking me to carry.
How About You?
My guess is that I’m not alone. When we sincerely desire to serve and honor Christ with our lives, we can often operate with a high standard.
If that is the case, then it is very easy for us to see following Christ as a heavy burden, not a light one. I had mistaken His call and made it all about me. That never results in rest.
There is more for me to learn, which I will uncover in the next post, but for now, I would ask you this:
In your pursuit of rest, will you accept His invitation to come to Him?
When you do, will you be willing to humble yourself to learn from Him?
Will you surrender your heavy yoke for His light one?
Our gentle and lowly Shepherd awaits.
