My Yoke is Easy
by Lucile Enlow
Awhile back my mother shared with me a tract that was written many years ago by my grandmother. I know it will be a blessing to others as it was to me.
Most Christians are carrying heavy loads which God never intended that they should carry. These unnecessary burdens keep us from bearing the ones we ought to bear, the prayer-burdens of the heart of God. And so long as we are tugging at the Lord’s side of the yoke, we are hindering the perfect teamwork to which He invites us. It is our side of the yoke that is easy. He will bear the burden and the heat of the day.
With a delightful sense of freedom, I have come to realize in fact, that I have only my half of any bargain to keep. For years I tried to keep both, but now I am concerning myself only with what is required of me. I am the one who may not be faithful. God can be depended upon.
So when He says, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” I will simply come. With my eyes upon the One altogether lovely, my heart aglow with the light of His countenance, I will come unto Him. He gives rest.
“Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” How often have I “committed” a pressing need to my Lord, and then set about trying to bring it to pass, if not actually, at least in my mind. Of course, I am not speaking of something that is up to me to bring to pass, but of the answer to a problem that only God can solve.
Why should I sit up nights trying to figure out God’s half of the bargain? Mine is to commit. That done, I can safely go about other business, serenely sure that God can be relied on. If He says He will bring it to pass. He will bring it to pass.
“Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart” (Psa. 37-4). I used to slide over that first part, hastily reminding the Lord that I was delighting myself in Him, and then spend my time yearning and longing for the desires of my heart. Such intense desires must be granted by their very intensity. But the intensity of my desires was not the condition of their fulfillment. “Delight thyself in the Lord.” That is a pursuit worthy of time and eternity.
In delighting myself in the Lord, I am lost in His loveliness. I am so filled with love for my Saviour that I want whatever He wants with a consuming fire that burns out the dross of my own sin-tainted desires. Wanting only what will please Him, the Spirit of God prays within me the prayer of faith. I need not pry into His workings. He is bound by His Word to fulfill desires that have grown out of my delight in the Lord.
“No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly” (Psa. 84:11). How I have dwelt on God’s part of that promise! “No good thing will he withhold.” No—good—thing. I should have been concentrating on walking uprightly. I wouldn’t have to spend so much time reminding God of His promises if I spent more in fulfilling the conditions.
Talking one day with a dear woman who was smoking a cigarette at the time, and who was badly tangled up in a false cult, I was astonished to hear her quote the Ninety-first Psalm—verse after verse of it, all those beautiful strong, all-sufficient promises to the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty. I instantly recognized the incongruity of her misplaced trust in promises not meant for her. But had I been comforting myself with assurances of the Father’s care, while wandering out from under His wings? I’m afraid I had, often.
We have all heard the unsaved, or the worldly Christian say, “Oh, well, ‘All things work together for good.’” There is no period after good. The phrase that should concern us is, “to them that love God.”
It was such a relief to me to discover that I do not have to work things out. I have only to love God. I can concentrate on that. I will worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness—clothed in the robes of His own righteousness—and leave the working to Him. Even when my life is a very busy one, all full of happenings, still the working is His. There is no fret or strain. I can sing His praises while He works in and through me. My meditation of Him shall be sweet. I will be glad in the Lord.
If I do not bring forth much fruit, I am not abiding in the vine. The tree planted by the rivers of water does nothing toward producing fruit but stay in the rich earth, drawing constantly upon its source of life.
I need not keep looking at those promises as if there were something the matter with them. The promises are true, but I am paying more attention to God’s part than to mine. “Abide in me.” Stay right there all the time, not only when I want something, but all the time. God’s laws work and His Word cannot be broken.
The Word is full of promises to those who wait upon God. “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.” (Isa. 40:31). We have so counted on that when we were weak and in need of strength. Yet we continue to faint and fall with the young men of the previous verse, because we have never learned what it means. Now, when I am weak, I do not worry about not having strength. I wait upon the Lord. It is a wonderful life—just waiting on God. It does not necessarily imply inactivity, though there should be quiet time before Him. It is a heart attitude. Wait upon the Lord. The miracle of renewed strength is the result of the working of the laws of the spiritual world. We need not agonize to be strong. We need to wait upon the Lord.
How free we are to live Heavenward! God will take care of our earthly needs, as well as of the heavenly, while we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and are changed into His image from glory to glory.
Do we want to be like Him? Behold the glory of the Lord! We cannot behold without being changed.
I am so grateful to God that I have learned to concern myself primarily with my half of His promises, while rejoicing in the sure fulfillment of His half. He is faithful that promised. Oh may I be faithful!
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