Matthew 11:28-30   ²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Thanks to the trees on our property, in the heat of summer I have the opportunity to plan my work in our yard to be in the shade as the sun moves through the day.  Working in the shade sure beats working in the sun when it’s hot and humid – and better still is to have a breeze come up.  Isn’t it amazing the marvelous impact that a cool breeze can have upon us when we’re working outside on a hot day?

This passage from Matthew is truly special.  How encouraging it is when we’re weary and burdened to hear that we can be given rest.  The key is the speaker, for it is Jesus speaking and He is telling us that rest is available if we come to Him.  He is our ‘shade’ and our ‘cool breeze’ as we work in the ‘hot days’ of our lives.

When we think of a yoke, we tend to think of oxen and work.  But Jesus says to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him.  When we do, we learn He is gentle and humble of heart and we find rest for our souls.  Even more amazing is the discovery that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  He has a way of transforming everything – no matter what kind of circumstances we find ourselves in.

One of the difficulties we often deal with is the tendency to allow our faith to be pushed to the background by the burdens and life-struggles that we contend with every day.  We get busy and overwhelmed and focus upon everything else – not fully embracing our Lord and our faith.  This isn’t our intention, it just happens to be the way it works out all too often for many of us.  He doesn’t condemn us or abandon us to our own devices.  But He lovingly pursues us to hear and respond.

This promise is true whether we are Christians or not.  Anyone can come to Jesus and find rest.  Better than that is the life He has for all who do come to Him.  If we are weary and burdened, we need to be reminded that we have the greatest resource imaginable in our Lord.  We must come to Him, put Him first and spend the time learning of Him to experience the refreshing wonder He has available for us.