The Heavy Load
Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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.
It’s one thing to carry a heavy load around on your back – most of us can cope with that for a short while. But it’s another thing entirely, to carry a heavy load around on your back, for hours, days, weeks, months.
Imagine, carrying a person across your shoulders, not just for a minute or so, but for months on end. It’d just about kill you, wouldn’t it?
It turns out that when it comes to carrying heavy loads, it’s not just the weight that counts. Time is the key factor in what you’re able to cope with. The longer you carry that heavy load, the heavier it gets.
When I was young, I spent ten years in the Australian army. One of the things they made us do in our physical fitness training was to run with heavy loads. They gave us these sort of cut down telegraph poles, with three men to a pole – man they were heavy. We ran for miles carrying these heavy burdens. It was totally exhausting.
So many people are weighed down by heavy burdens in their lives. By cares and concerns. Fractured relationships. Worries over money or health. A sense, perhaps, that their life isn’t amounting to all that it should be. And these are the sorts of burdens that aren’t there just for a few minutes or a few hours. These are the one that people carry around day after day, month after month and yes, even year after year. It’s totally exhausting. It drains the life out of you, to the point of collapse.
Maybe that’s you right now. Well, I believe that Jesus has something to say to you today:
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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. (Matthew 11:28-30)
That’s not just some throw away line. It’s true. And maybe, just maybe, it’s meant for you today. Because when you’re weary from carrying those heavy burdens, and you take them to Jesus, He truly does give you rest. He leans into that yoke with you and takes the weight, the strain, the load, helping you to move forward.
It’s a tragedy from where I sit, that so many people who believe in Jesus, don’t take Him at His Word. They don’t expect Him to do what He says He’s going to do.
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.
That’s not me saying that. It’s Jesus. He will give you rest, when you take your burdens to Him. Pure, sweet, beautiful, simple, rest.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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