Trading Yokes

    How many plastic bags can you carry after arriving home from a shopping trip to the local grocery store?  I usually try to make it one trip and plan to fill the other hand up which doesn't have to reach into my trousers for my house key.  They always seem to only put one or two items in each plastic bag which means that you end up with about a dozen bags filled with just a couple of items each.  We have heard of the expression, "The straw that broke the camel's back."  It means that one more thing, regardless of how small it is makes you go over the limit and drop the whole thing on the ground.   Matthew 11:28-30 says, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  

      It seems that each person has a limit of just how much they can do and with some it might be just a few things, while with others, their plate can be loaded to the maximum and they still keep going ahead, one step at a time.  All of us, however, have that point where we just can't do one more thing and the burdens just keep piling on.  We could have rectified the situation a long time ago by taking heed to the above passage of Scripture.  This is a famous Scripture passage and so I guess we are not ignorant of it, but just fail to put it into practice.   We sometimes look at a person who has passed away and remark that they are now safe in the arms of Jesus, but we can have that same comfort in our day to day experiences.  When the burdens are upon us, all we need to do is to remember this passage of scripture and to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ for our comfort.  He is the Only One Who is qualified to carry our load and He has given us this personal invitation to get yoked up with Him.  There is a comfort in knowing that this applies to any age group.  It is not just for the young, or the middle aged, or the child or even the senior adult.  It is for every age.  We can all experience comfort when the load is taken from us by Him.  It also doesn't matter what the difficulty or burden is.  It is rare that our burdens only come in single occurrences.  You will find that they do get piled on like the plastic bags and you feel that you can't take one more thing.  Get yoked up with the Master, and you will find that your load is relieved.  In the cartoon version of Pilgrim's Progress, the burden of the pilgrim is piled on his back but then He looks up at the cross and the burden falls off His back and rolls into the empty tomb.  So, Praise God today for the fact that He wants you to yoke up with Him when your burdens get to be just too much to bear.  In fact, stay in His yoke all the time.