My yoke is easy

Years ago I attended a ‘church’ building that often stressed the crown ‘Christians’ would receive upon entrance to heaven. Talk among the leaders of the ‘church’ and in sermons regularly spoke of how each deed a ‘christian’ does for someone earns him another jewel in that crown.

That earning or entitlement mindset is a thought process…an entire religion…of its own. How easy it is for people to want to follow a ‘Jesus’ that rewards them for every little deed.

When my children were toddlers I had what I called a treasure bucket that I kept on top of the refrigerator. In it I kept small trinkets…bouncy balls, pencils, stickers…even change. When my toddlers would do something particularly helpful or nice for someone I would allow them to pick something out of the prize bucket. It was a very simple reward method that required little effort on my part but brought them great joy. They would often do something just to try and earn something from the prize bucket.

The ‘crowns’ and ‘jewels’ taught at the ‘church’ building I attended so many years ago reminds me of that very prize bucket. I have heard those in that ‘church’ speak of how holding a door open for someone ‘earns’ another jewel in your crown.

That method of ‘christianity’…that method of teaching what ‘christians’ should be…reminds me of my toddlers that were so eager to help carry groceries or clean off the kitchen table. They wanted the prize…thought only of the prize…and were working to gain the prize. That was their sole purpose for doing what they did.

In that ‘church’ I heard many a conversation that centered on the ‘jewels’ ‘christians’ would have in their crowns in heaven. And why not…that was what the leaders were teaching them. It was the goal for their place in heaven. That very same ‘church’ taught that there would be slaves and rulers in heaven. I can’t count the number of times I heard those in leadership positions within that ‘church’ say that they didn’t want to be a slave when they got to heaven.

What the so-called leaders in the ‘church’ building were teaching was wrong. Their whole purpose…whole belief…was based off what they could get. What they did on earth was done for the purpose of earning something in heaven. There are many that try and work their way into salvation…known as works righteousness systems. Wrong as those beliefs are, at least they are trying to attain salvation. This ‘church’ and those it ‘led’ weren’t trying to attain salvation…that was attained through the two minute prayer they said…what the members and leaders of this ‘church’ were working for were ‘treasures’ in heaven. They had…in their minds…secured their place in heaven and they not only wanted a high position when they got there but they wanted many jewels too.

Salvation…in their minds…was easy. It was as simple as saying a prayer…telling ‘Jesus’ that they wanted Him to live in their hearts…and their eternal life was secure. They need do nothing else. From that point on they were free to work their way into a high position in heaven and as many jewels as they could.

That belief is in opposition to what Scripture teaches…

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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

My first thoughts when I look to that verse in light of what those in that ‘church’ believed…thanks to what their ‘leaders’ were teaching…is: for I am gentle and humble in heart. If a ‘Christian’ is working for the purpose of a higher position in heaven and more ‘jewels’ in their ‘crown’…are they being humble in heart?

I think, too, of how that verse is mixed up and mangled by the same kind of ‘Christians’ that find themselves taking Scripture and making it into something that looks nothing like the black and white Truth that rests between the covers of the Bible.

This past winter I saw a news headline…I didn’t read the article…about how a popular Hollywood persona was rewriting…or having rewritten…the Bible. According to the headline God was being replaced with that person’s name.

I can’t think of any worse twisting of Scripture than to remove the Lord from the Bible and place anything…or anyone…in His place. But that, at least, is an obvious mutilation of Scripture. Who could sit down with a ‘Bible’ and read…in the beginning ___________ created…and not know they were reading a perversion of the Bible? Even those that don’t believe in the Lord knows God is supposed to be in the Bible.

But how many ‘leaders’ of ‘Christians’ mangle and pervert Scripture just as much as that Hollywood persona supposedly did?

How much was the Truth of Scripture perverted…twisted…mangled…to create the mindset that the ‘leaders’ of that ‘church’ I attended taught to those they were supposedly to be teaching Truth to? How much mangling had to go on to tell those poor people that their purpose as a ‘Christian’ was to gain more jewels in their crown?

I need look no further in Scripture than the verse above to see that Scripture is twisted and mangled in the majority of ‘church’ buildings today.

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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

I would guess that the majority of professing ‘christians’ would recognize the beginning of that verse. "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Not only would they recognize it but most of them would be all too happy to take it to heart and apply it to their lives.

They are more than happy to run to Christ and receive rest. They’ll gladly give up their heavy, wearying burdens and accept the rest he offers. But that’s as far as most of them go. They stop after that. They need know nothing beyond the fact that ‘Jesus’ offers to give them rest from their burdens. It’s a rest they gladly claim…much the way those in that ‘church’ I attended were more than happy to claim the ‘jewels’ that were ‘owed’ to them because they did something good.

They are happy to pick from the prize bucket…happy to accept the invitation and the offer that’s been placed before them. All they must do is…come to me…and they will be given the prize…rest. But they fail to notice that there’s a condition to that prize. It isn’t offered freely. It’s not sitting there waiting for anyone and everyone that wishes to stick their hand in the prize bucket and come up with the trinket they desire.

There is a requirement to that prize.

The ‘Christians’ that run to eagerly accept the ‘free gift’ of rest that is offered fail to realize that there is a price attached to that gift. It isn’t a get out of jail free card. It isn’t a prize to be gained for nothing more than verbally…superficially…acknowledging Christ.

There is a deep and profound price tag attached to the gift of rest that is offered. It is a price tag that most never realize is there. And so they try the ‘gift’ on. They examine it in the mirror. They parade it before their friends….offer the same ‘gift’ to anyone that will take notice. And they never understand that it is a gift they do not have.

The ‘gift’ they so eagerly accepted is but an illusion because they failed to pay the price that was attached to it.

When they grabbed onto the gift…they ignored the price tag. They eagerly read and applied…"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.  But they never noticed, or took to heart…Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.

There…in Scripture…is the gift…

Come to Me…and I will give you rest.

And that is where they stop. They grab onto come to me and they eagerly accept I will give you rest. There is no need to read or apply anything beyond that. Why would there be? So many ‘leaders’ of ‘churches’ today have handed out sermon after sermon of that very same gift. No matter the words used, no matter the Scripture verses used, the message is the same. If you come to Christ…if you choose ‘Jesus’…He will give you rest…you will gain salvation for eternity because you have ‘made a decision for Christ.’

It’s easy. There’s nothing to it. That’s all there is. Your life need never change. All you have to do is ‘come to Jesus and you will secure your salvation.’ And like sheep being led to slaughter, ‘Christian’ after ‘Christian’ fall for this easy-believism ‘Christianity’ that gives them ‘eternal security’ without ever knowing there is so much more to being a Christian.

So those ‘Christians’ take the gift…but they don’t notice the price tag…

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.

And in not noticing the price tag…they fail to pay for the gift they think they have. They have grabbed onto an illusion that gained them nothing. They believe they own the gift…the rest…that was offered, but the reality is that the gift came with conditions. It came with certain requirements. It came with expectations. And it’s impossible to have the gift without paying the price to get it.

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me.

What they never realized that while they were invited to ‘come to Christ’ the price of doing so was to be ruled by him. Paul put it so well when he said he was a slave of Christ. Those that eagerly grab onto the rest offered through Christ neglect the fact that to gain that rest they must be ruled by Him.

I have a relative that told my daughter that I ‘make being a Christian harder than it has to be’. This relative can’t see the reason for giving up so many of the…sinful…’pleasures’ of this world. They think that because I don’t partake of things like Halloween and movies that I make ‘Christianity’ harder than it has to be. But the reality is that I didn’t choose to give up those things. The Lord took them from me. he created in me a hurt everytime I encountered those things…and many others. I didn’t make things harder by living for Christ. I made it easier. But it’s only easier when you understand that you must pay the price to gain the gift.

And even at that…it wasn’t a gift I chose. I didn’t ask for this kind of faith, for this kind of belief. I didn’t choose it. And I don’t make things harder. I obey my Lord and the hurt He places in me when I encounter sin is removed from my heart. And so the hardness of being a Christian…what my relative see’s as me making things hard…isn’t me doing anything but the Lord controlling my life.

As a result of the Lords control, and my obedience to that control, my life has become easier, not harder.

I have entered into a rest that only Christ can give.

That rest isn’t a physical rest but a Spiritual one. It is the rest from sin. The rest from being a slave to the world and the sinful nature of the world. It’s the rest of salvation.

Take My yoke upon you…

I took that yoke upon me…but I didn’t chose that yoke. I received it because the Lord chose me to carry that yoke. He placed His yoke around my neck and enslaved me. I paid the price for gaining the gift of rest.

When I look back over my life…back to when I lived much the way the relative that says I make being a Christian harder than it has to be…I can clearly see the difference in my life. I can see the price I paid for the gift of rest I received. It was a price I’m grateful to have paid…it’s a yoke I gladly wear. But it was a high price.

In earthly terms…it was a high price.

Compared to what Christ did for me…it wasn’t even a penny’s worth of payment.

The price I paid is an insult compared to the gift I received.

When I do laundry I often find…things…in the washing machine. Toys, sticks, acorns…money. Once after finding a penny in the washer I told my husband that I think I got insulted. A penny in payment for doing laundry is worth less than nothing. I knew the penny wasn’t in payment, most likely it belonged to our young son who never fails to leave ‘treasures’ in his pockets. But had that penny been the payment for doing that day’s laundry…it would have been an insult.

That is what my payment is worth to my Lord. The gift He has given me is so great that the most valuable payment I could give him is but an insult.

All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. Isaiah 64:6 NIV

My greatest offering is but a filthy rag. It’s less than nothing. I can’t begin to pay for the gift I’ve been given and yet…

Pay I must. Because the payment is extracted from me in the yoke that was placed upon me. I didn’t choose to pay the price. I didn’t offer to pay it. I didn’t ask to be charged for it. But I paid it anyway. I gladly pay it daily.

I pay for the gift in the wearing of the yoke that I took upon me. I may not have chosen to take the yoke but once I had it, it was a yoke I am grateful to wear.

The next part of the payment for the rest I have received is…

learn from Me.

I must learn from Christ daily. I must learn from His word. I must learn from even the pain that He places in me. I think again of how I ‘make being a Christian harder than it has to be’ and of the pain that afflicts my heart each time I encounter sin…the pain that made me give up so much of the world.

Halloween is a perfect example…I literally hurt, cringe, ache inside when I encounter things of Halloween. A few days ago a neighbor asked me if I would be in town on Halloween. I told her we don’t celebrate Halloween, and as I said it I looked at the skeletons and other creatures decorating her front door. In shock she told me she didn’t know we don’t celebrate such a sin-filled holiday (my term, not hers).

I let the conversation drop at that but the reality is…Halloween hurts my heart. It hurts my soul. It makes me ache just thinking about it.

And so I pay the price for the yoke I wear because the Lord charges a high price. And He gives a high reward. In paying the price of giving up what hurts my heart and soul, I gain peace. I gain rest.

But that is only a small part of the learning from Him that I must do. I must submit all of me into His care and will. And even that…doesn’t properly describe what happens because I don’t submit myself to him so much as he takes me captive. He has bound me to him surely as if He chained me to his side. And in binding me with His invisible chains…He removed the chains of this world that had me bound.

And still…I must pay for my rest by learning of Him. But the learning…the paying…comes easy, because it makes my heart and soul light to pay that price. It feeds my soul to learn of my Lord.

But that price…

Can only be paid because my Lord has taken me captive and placed His yoke upon me.

Scripture perfectly explains how that works…

… and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

The yoke that He has placed upon me is easy, His burden is light. Because in placing me within His yoke he removed from me the bondage of sin that the world placed upon me.

Instead of me making ‘being a Christian harder than it has to be’, Christ placed his yoke on me which made being a Christian so much easier than anything of this world. As I obey him…as I seek to ease the hurt in my heart and soul…life becomes so much simpler. Being a Christian becomes easy.

It’s much like playing follow the leader. He leads me through those pain-filled promptings and all I have to do is obey.

My yoke is easy…

The Greek word for easy translates as good and gracious.  And it is a very good translation. The yoke that Christ has placed upon me is a good and gracious yoke. Far from making life…from making being a Christian…harder, it has made it so much simpler. It has brought with it a peace that I never would have dreamed exists until I experienced it for myself.

A few months after my husband and I were married I was sitting on our back porch while he worked outside. I set there…looking at the woods that surround our house and the sky…just absorbing the peace, perfectly content. Out of the blue my husband asked me if I was okay. After telling him I was I asked him why he asked. He said he was used to people that when they sat and stared off into space that they were angry and discontent. I wasn’t anywhere close to either of those things. I was very much at peace…content…just looking at the world my Lord made.

I do that often. Just sit and absorb the peace of my Lord’s creation. I have a relative that finds no peace in Creation. This person doesn’t like the outdoors and speaks often of how awful being outside…especially in the woods…is.

I think that is a good example of the ease of the yoke I wear. I paid the price of giving up the movies, the music, the world, that the relative who doesn’t like the woods has…but I gained the peace of total contentment.

Recently I was speaking with the relative that dislikes the woods about the faith my husband and I have. This relative told me that they hope they never marry anyone that has that kind of faith. Sadly I had to tell them that I hoped they don’t either. Not for them but for the one that shares the faith I hold. I went on to tell them that I imagine someone with the faith of this relative and someone with the faith I hold…would make each other miserable in marriage.

The yoke that this relative wears is the yoke of the world. They are a slave to the world and its ways. How deep they will go into bondage to the world and to sin, I do not know, but I know they are as bound as if they were in chains.

I know too, that someone wearing the yoke of Christ holds a bondage that is freeing. They are no longer tethered in the same way. The one in bondage to the world…much like the relative that says I make Christianity harder than it has to be…cannot handle the ease of the yoke of Christ. It rubs and chaffs them; it weighs them down until they feel as if they are drowning. And it’s much too heavy for them to carry around.

But for the person that has been saved by Christ…the yoke is easy. It’s freeing. It takes away the heavy chains and the burdens we once carried. That yoke is a delight to wear and to carry.

But far from teaching that the cost of the prize…Christ’s rest…is high, far from showing those they lead that there is a price to be paid for attaining that rest…’leaders’ in the majority of ‘church’ buildings teach only the first part…that the rest is there if you will ‘come to Christ’. There are no stipulations attached. They don’t explain that most of the people that want to grab onto the rest would chaff and get bogged down to the point of drowning by the yoke they must carry to claim the rest.

Instead they teach that the rest is there for the claiming to all who care to claim it. But that’s as far as they go. They don’t teach that there are commandments to be kept or that the price is high. They don’t stand in front of those they ‘lead’ and say…it will cost you everything.

They don’t remind those being led that Christ spent His earthly life fulfilling his Father’s will, fulfilling a plan that was foretold hundreds of years before His birth. They don’t teach that Christ himself bore a yoke. Look back to the verse above…

 Take My yoke upon you…

Take my yoke. Christ didn’t say take a yoke. He didn’t say take the yoke. He said take my yoke. Mine.

 …and learn from Me…

What are we to learn from Christ? He tells us in the very next words He says…

for I am gentle and humble in heart,

Christ came to earth to fulfill a plan that was foretold of long before He was born onto earth. He was here to do His Father’s will. Was His purpose on earth not a burden? Did He not carry his own yoke? And still He tells us…

For I am gentle and humble in heart. Christ’s sole purpose on earth was to fulfill the plan of His Father. To do what He was sent to earth to accomplish. But even in that purpose He set an example for us. We are to learn from Him. To follow Him.

There is much required of the person that has the yoke of Christ placed upon them. Much will be given to them…but much will be required of them also.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will…Ephesians 1:3-5 ESV

We are told in the verse above how we came to have the yoke placed upon us… he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. And we are told why… that we should be holy and blameless before him….he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.

It was the Lord’s will to place that yoke upon us. But we are told…

 …you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

The Lord chose who out of all time would wear His yoke but He requires a price be paid for that yoke. We can’t simply take the rest that is offered us and wear it without paying the price he charges. And for many the price of Christ’s yoke is too high. They simply cannot pay it because they haven’t been given the ability to pay it. Only those that the Lord chooses to wear His yoke will be able to carry it…not as a burden but as a delight.

The relative that told me they didn’t want to marry someone with my faith couldn’t not wear the yoke Christ spoke of. Not at this time in their life. Someday, I pray, the Lord will save this person and place the yoke upon them, but right now…the yoke is more than they can conceive of wearing. Because the rest offered through that yoke is a rest in Christ. It’s a rest that comes only through Christ and not through the desires of this world.

We are told in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to…

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.

How telling would it be if the many that profess to be ‘Christians’ looked to…

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

And applied it to 2 Corinthians 13:5? I’ve heard it said that there will be many a professing ‘Christian’ in hell. How easy we can examine our faith by examining our yoke. Is the yoke we carry Christs? Is it heavy or light?

How nice it would be if a professing ‘christian’ could determine if their faith was saving faith simply by examining their yoke. Sadly…too many wear a yoke that is the yoke of the world and they place Christs name upon it.

Just as my relative…a professing Christian…says I make being a Christian harder than it has to be…while wearing a yoke that tethers them to so much of the world that it would drown me.

John Newton (1725-1807) said, "This verse alone, if seriously attended to, might convince multitudes that, though they bear the name of Christians and are found among the Lord's worshiping people, they are as yet entire strangers to the religion of the Gospel. Can it be supposed that our Lord would give a false character of His yoke? If not, how can any dream that they are His followers while they account a life of communion with God and entire devotedness to His service, to be dull and burdensome? Those, however, who have made the happy trial, find it to be such a burden as wings are to a bird. Far from complaining of it, they are convinced that there is no real pleasure attainable in any other way."

How right Newton was but today’s ‘Christianity’ has been so changed and altered from the truth of Scripture that most professing ‘Christians’ wear a yoke they believe to be Christ’s and they wear it with ease. They can’t examine their faith in light of that yoke because the ‘leaders’ today don’t teach a yoke like the one Newton spoke of, they teach a yoke that looks much like the desires of the sin-filled human heart.

And that yoke…is light. So much so that it places few…if any…restrictions on the ‘Christian.’ Today’s ‘Christianity’ teaches that a ‘Christian’ can be anything they want to be and that ‘Jesus’ will not only allow but support what they want to do.

The ‘Christians’ of the professing world go about their lives doing and believing what they believe to be okay in God’s eyes without ever understanding that much of those things are sin. They are lost in their ‘Christianity’ just as much as if they weren’t ‘Christian’ at all.

But to the true Christian…the yoke of Christ really is a delight to wear and it is easy. There is no burden involved. It isn’t hard to be within His yoke because the path inside that yoke is light, it is paved with the will of our Lord for the purpose He has for us. And even when the way gets rocky there is peace and rest in Christ.

Just as I find total peace and contentment in simply gazing upon the creation of my Lord, I find peace and contentment in wearing His yoke.

I think, once again, of the relative that told me they don’t want to marry someone that holds my faith. And I think of how I hope…for the sake of the one that shares my faith…that at this stage in my relatives life…they don’t marry someone with my faith. I, too, must think of how the two would make each other miserable. While the one that has been saved by Christ walks in the peace and contentment of the Lord…my relative would wear that woke with discomfort and discontent.

Because the yoke of Christ is unbearable to the unregenerate. The yoke that comes so easy, so delightful, to the child of Christ…would drown the unregenerate. The price that must be paid for wearing that yoke…while feeling like nothing but pleasure to the saved…would be unbearable to the unregenerate.

That conversation…with my relative…happened before I started writing this but I think of that imagined marriage and can clearly see in it an example of the wearing of Christ’s yoke.To the one…the yoke is welcome, a delight…to the other…it would be torture and they wouldn’t be able to sustain carrying it for long.

When my husband and I met we talked of how most people couldn’t stay in the deeper Scriptural conversations we had for very long. We talked of how most people quickly escape from any such conversation. It’s much the same with Christ’s yoke. For the child of Christ…wearing the yoke is pleasure and we not only seek to stay in it, we look for a way of wearing it in a deeper way. But for the unregenerate…they seek constantly for a way to throw the yoke off.

I conversation with the relative that says I make being a Christian harder than it has to be comes to mind as I write this. This relative instigated a conversation by asking me about something I was reading. After I read a bit of it, this person told me that we need more preachers teaching on things like what I was reading, that ‘God’ wants more preachers to preach on that topic. I told them that if God wanted more people teaching on that topic…more preachers would preach on it.

The conversation ended soon after that. This person was not inclined to stay in that conversation. I understood that. I understood why.

But that very conversation was a perfect example of the yoke. Those that are in Christ…that have had his yoke placed upon them can wear it with ease and happiness. Those that are unregenerate not only don’t want the yoke of Christ placed upon them but they can’t wear it very long before it buries them with the weight of carrying it around. They must escape it all costs.

Even as they escape the true yoke of Christ, many of them believe they are wearing it. Because they ‘came to Christ’ and they accepted the gift He offered. They wear it with pride, professing a salvation that may well be nothing but an illusion.

I heard a reformed preacher say that there will be many professing ‘Christians’ in hell. They will get there not only through their own desire to accept the gift Christ offers without paying the price for it but they will be helped there by many a preacher that tells them they are assured of their place in heaven.

Those professing ‘Christians’ that will one day find themselves in hell, may well believe…if they were to test themselves by looking to the yoke they wear…that they are assured of their salvation because so many a preacher and ‘leader’ of the ‘church’ buildings have assured them that salvation is easy.

And it is easy…to those that are in Christ. To those that have been saved by Christ and have had the true yoke of Christ placed upon them. But for the rest…even many of those that profess to be ‘Christians’…the yoke is heavy.

Because that yoke goes against the lusts of the flesh. It is in direct opposition to the sinful desires of their hearts. As they live to please their own flesh they cannot help but be offended by the denial that comes with the yoke of Christ.

But to the true child of Christ…to the saved…to the regenerate…to the one that is a slave to Christ, not through their own will but through His…that yoke is a delight to bear and a security that they take comfort in each day. Instead of being something they strive to throw off and escape at every opportunity…it is something they wouldn’t give up if they could.

A.W. Pink puts it this way... What is heavy to flesh and blood, is light to faith and grace. I think that is such a beautiful way of describing it. It is light to faith and grace. In Christ we have been given both faith and grace. The Christian lives their life from the time of their salvation in a state of faith and grace. And it’s in that place that the yoke Christ places upon us becomes easy to bear…not only that but it becomes a delight to bear. It is…almost…as if the yoke itself is grace and faith.

There is such bondage in sin that the sinfilled heart is one of misery. Even as the unregenerate person goes through every day believing themselves happy, there is always something else they seek after. Something else they need and want more than what they have. There is no true contentment.

I have a daughter that is fascinated with the big expensive homes. She loves to drive through the neighborhoods just looking at them. We talk of how she likes those homes and why I don’t.

In turn I talk to her of what is now being called ‘tiny houses’. Those little bitty homes that sometimes don’t have enough room for an adult to stand up in. I could be much happier in one of those tiny homes than I could be in one of those very large, bordering on mansion, homes. I would rather have a bit more room to move around, would rather have the space for family within the walls of my home. But there would be more peace and contentment in one of those tiny houses than in the big houses my daughter likes.

Those big houses are a perfect example of the ‘we can never have enough’ syndrome our society suffers from. In their own way the tiny houses represent the same thing but for me…they are a direct contrast between ‘never enough’ and ‘content’. In a tiny home…you must limit your belongings and be happy with what you have or do without because there simply isn’t enough space to own more things. In a big home…you need more and more to fill it up.

Within the yoke…or bondage…of the world there is never enough. Happiness isn’t attained in another movie, another car, or another husband. In the yoke of Christ…happiness is attained within the yoke itself. There is contentment in where you are and with what you have.

In one…there is bondage…slavery…to the sin in the world. In one there is bondage to the creator of the world. In one there is a longing, an ever increasing desire, for something bigger and better than one has. In the other…there is nothing greater than what they already have.

In the greatness of the yoke that the child of Christ wears…they have a peace that brings true contentment. They have a joy in the world that will sustain them through even the toughest trials. Even when everything hurts, when they feel as if everything is falling apart…they have a Strength that will see them through. They hold a joy that those enslaved to the world cannot understand. And it’s in that joy where everything becomes easier and not harder.

The child of Christ may experience opposition from all directions but will still find the yoke of Christ to be not only easy but also delightful. In their hardest, darkest moments…they can only get so far within that yoke. They are bound to Christ as if they are chained to him. Hurt may come but they will continue to take comfort in the yoke they wear. They will gladly live in obedience to Christ and will find that yoke easy to bear even as the world tells them it’s difficult.