Today’s devotion is Matthew 11:28-30.
“28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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.” Matthew 11:28-30.
From about 1992 to 1997, I wrote “Letters to Harry”. These were letters that I wrote to my best friend, Harry Sieplinga, about my struggles in life and my attempts to discover and apply Scripture to my life during that time. Harry was (and is) kind and gracious like you all in allowing me to write to you all without telling me to stop.
When I started, I did not have any idea that I would write so many. I just wrote them one by one. Later, I accumulated them, chose the best ones, and put them in the format of “Gold Mining”. Here is the link to that section of my web site – Click here: Gold Mining « Reformed Doctrine Blog
I write this for two purposes. First, I write this introduction as an encouragement to you all to consider writing and keeping your own meditations on your own devotions. Second, I write this as an introduction to one letter that I want to use as my comments on these verses.
Regarding the encouragement to you all to consider, when I experience financial struggles and other struggles, it helps me to go back and read and remember that God delivered me and what He taught me. It also serves as a memorial to God’s work.
In my devotion with my law partner yesterday, our devotion was Joshua Chapter 3 which concerns the miraculous crossing of Jordan. “and Joshua said to them, “Cross again to the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Israel. “Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off ‘ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.” Joshua 4:5-7. (Emphasis added.)
How do you remember what great things God has done for you? How do you save some type of record of what great things God has done for you, so you can share your testimony with others? How do you memorialize what great things God has done for you?
Now, on to –
GOLD MINE 29: MATTHEW 11:28-39
CHRIST’S YOKE WAS THE CROSS; OUR YOKE IS THE SPIRIT
March 20, 1995
Harry:
Jesus said: “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 SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light”. Matthew 11:28-29.
What is a yoke? According to Oxford American Dictionary, published in 1980 by Oxford University Press, a yoke is a “wooden crosspiece”. It is a foundation for pulling or work.
After reading this definition of yoke, I thought of the cross. The cross is a wooden crosspiece that was fastened to Christ as a foundation for His work of carrying away the sins of the world. The yoke that Christ endured was the cross, but the yoke that Christ give us is His Spirit.
The Pharisees lay law upon law on the people: “And they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”
Matthew 23:4.
In contrast, Christ tied up the heavy loads of the law and laid them on His own shoulders and gave us His Spirit as a yoke: “in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. Romans 8:4.
Bill
Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions 