Take My Yoke Upon You

“We figure there is close to 40,000 children enslaved in this area alone.“

That number sank deep into my chest. 40,000?

It was hard to fathom that much innocence being robbed from so many children.

Then, immediately an arrow hit my heart. I looked down at my pudgy untrained well fed exterior and started to feel the full weight of the shame of my comfort. I had been called to see slaves freed and yet I was physically incapable of following through in my calling.

As I listened to my new friend who was the speaker at the gathering, it was evident that we shared similar callings, and he had already been doing for 15 years the very thing thats been burning within my heart to do. But the gap between me and him was ginormous. This man, almost 70 can do more than I could in my 20s. A couple of days went by and the shame grew more and more.

Then I heard His voice, my Heavenly Father’s voice. “Even youth grow tired and weary, even young men stumble and fall, but those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength! Phil this is your season to renew your strength.”

The next day I called a local Martial Arts school and applied, I also started getting up early and hit the gym. I felt excited, I felt energized, I felt like this was my time to become the warrior God was calling me to be. If God was declaring it than nothing could get in the way.

Do you recognize the difference between these two realities? There’s a way of shame, of legalism, of guilt, and overcompensation. It leaves you in bondage and chained to your failures.

But when God speaks it’s an invitation to be restored within your calling to help restore others!

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.”

Training for battle and getting into shape is a lot of work. It’s hard work. It’s good work. But if I do it out of my shame and guilt it will suffocate me. But when it comes from a place of peaceful love and permission from the Father, it stops being an obligation, and starts becoming an opportunity.

Maybe your calling requires a lot from you. Maybe you have lived a life in rebellion against what you were made to do and now the cost repentance seems a lot steeper.

But believer let me encourage you today. You don’t have to strive under the whip of guilt and shame. You can soar with wings of the Fathers words. The words He is speaking over you in tough times, in the shame, in the sorrow. Take on His words and His burden, and you will find yourself feeling lighter and your heart will feel easier.

Be blessed

Phil Morris