SSMT #6!

Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)



“Come to me all who are weary and burdened 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 soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

 I am one of those people who really do not get all crazy about things. Don’t really “freak out” about stuff and basically keep a level head. Most of the time. However, there are occasions that THE word – you know the one I am talking about – WORRY - creeps in when I least expect it and it takes me by surprise. Even when I know that I know that I know – HE is in control and worry does me not one bit of good. This is not just in relation to one particular thing in my life right now but a few areas I am experiencing concern. A little angst if you will. I do not like how that makes me feel. Not my basic nature so it feels unnatural. Yesterday afternoon I was feeling a pretty healthy dose of worry and I was at my computer and started to look at more of those videos of the devastation in Japan. WOW. My mind cannot fathom all of that. It is truly like watching a movie with wild special effects, except this is real. Talk about feeling convicted about what I feel is problematic right now. Then a whole new set of feelings swept over me – Guilt. How can I be so petty when I have just seen families literally running for their lives. Makes me ill thinking about it.



Today is the day for memory verse #6 and I began praying a couple of days ago for the Lord to direct me to the scripture He feels I most need right now. All night long, ALL NIGHT LONG – I dreamed about oxen in a yoke. Heard an illustration once about how our yokes keep us in bondage. Like the oxen who were shackled to a yoke. Some yokes are for one oxen and others were for two. When I try to worry and control things I am like that oxen in one yoke and that yoke is bondage. Bondage to my fears, concerns, and worries. However when I accept the yoke that Christ has offered me to share with Him, I am released from all that fear, concern and worry for He gives me rest from it and He carries it – His burden is light. Then that yoke of bondage becomes a yoke of liberty. More than anything this morning I am reminded that even through my guilt about worry and my worry (how is that for a double whammy of self-absorption!) the God who is concerned for the people of Japan is also reminding me He still wants me to cast all my cares upon Him and He cares for me in the midst of all that goes in the world.
Oh, what a Savior!