TAKE THE EASY YOKE

TAKE THE EASY YOKE

Sometime ago, I saw a video of an almost incredible situation. This must have happened in a French speaking African country (Senegal, I believe) as I could hear part of the ongoing conversation in French. But it really could have been anywhere from Khartoum, to Namibia or even South Africa. In these countries there is a mode of transportation where animals are used to pull carts laden with large containers of water or farm produce.

The whole idea is to yoke two animals together for maximum strength and preferably to work a cart with four wheels. Yet it is very common to see carts with two wheels being pulled by just one animal where all the weight and burden is completely on the animal. So back to the video I had seen; a two-wheeled cart filled with large containers of water being pulled along by one donkey. Well actually, the cart was no longer being pulled by the donkey because the load on the cart was so much that the cart just sank to the ground and the donkey went up, all four legs in the air. It was unsightly. A driver stopped by and helped them to take off most of the load on the cart before the donkey came back down to earth. Thank God for the timely intervention of the passer-by.

This reminded me of the yoke and the burden of our Lord, Jesus that He talked about in the bible. This is what He said: “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28 – 30 NLT Are we not all weary and burdened now? It has been wave after wave of one horror story or another. How much more of this do we think we can take? Not much more, if you ask me. But that is if we keep trying in our own strength. Yet if we bring our troubled minds and all that is weighing us down to Jesus, He will give us rest. We might say what rest is there in this chaos? The place of rest is the place where we trust God completely. As long we are still trying to solve it ourselves, arguing about things that we have no power over, the burden will just get heavier.  This battle is the Lord’s and He will fight it and win the victory. I found an interesting version to Psalms 46:10 that we popularly quote as “Be still and know that I am God”. Here goes “Our God says, “Calm down, and learn that I am God! All nations on earth will honor me.” Psalms 46:10 Contemporary English Version

We must calm down and believe God when He says all nations on earth will honor Him, because they will. I know this because God watches over His words to see that they come to pass. We cannot know this truth and still be fretting. We cannot know this truth and be complaining from sun up to sun down. The truth is that the fretting or the complaining will not change the situation. If anything, we burden ourselves more. Let us not end up like the donkey that was overburdened to the point where it almost collapsed but instead let us take the yoke of Jesus which simply means we agree to walk with Him and work with Him. That way He can lead us, guide us and direct us.

Just like David knew to do when he had nowhere else to turn, He called to the Lord. Let us do likewise because all of our help comes from the Lord.  “Hear my cry, O God; Attend unto my prayer. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.” Psalms 61: 1 -2 KJV

Take the easy yoke of Jesus; He will see us through these tough times.

OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS©