Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

This week, we will seek wisdom from God regarding heaviness/burdens. We’ll begin with Jesus’ offer to switch the world’s burdens for His.

Matthew 11:28‭-‬30 (NLT) shares…
Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Consider…
I have read or heard today’s scripture numerous times in my lifetime, yet this morning it hit home in a different way. What specifically stood out to me was Jesus’ closing statement, “the burden I give you is light.” All these years my focus was on Jesus giving us rest from our burdens. However, today I see the rest really comes from switching ours for His.

So what burdens do we carry that weigh us down? The answer is sin!

The Holy Spirit directed me to Romans 6:18‭-‬22 (NLT) to see
the switch from the heavy burden of sin to the light burden of righteous living…
Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living. Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

This aptly describes the switch of living a life burdened by sin and it’s shame and eternal doom, to Christ’s burden of righteous living that leads to holiness and eternal life.

In fact the last verse of Romans 6, puts a bow on the switch Jesus is referring to in today’s scripture…
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. – Romans 6:23 NLT

The costs of the burden of sin is death, but the reward of Christ’s righteous living burden is the free gift of eternal life through Him.

As I continue to write, the Holy Spirit is bombarding my thoughts with an understanding that the switch is not us giving our burden to Jesus and taking His from Him. Rather, it’s switching from carrying our burden of trying to do right on our own, to connecting with Christ and sharing the burden of righteous living with Him. Meaning, now we’re carrying it together.

To emphasize the burden sharing, Jesus said…
For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

So what is a yoke? A yoke is a wooden beam used to help carry or pull heavy objects by distributing the weight evenly on both shoulders and can be used by humans and animals alike.

According to a faith gateway blog…
Farmers used to train young oxen to plow by partnering them with stronger and more mature oxen. The job of the younger ox was simply to follow in the same direction and keep pace with the teacher ox. The older ox pulled most of the weight and understood the commands of the plow driver. As long as the young ox followed the older ox, everything was fine. But if the younger ox decided to speed up or lag behind, the work became much more difficult. Only by keeping pace with the older ox could the younger ox complete the day’s work without collapsing from exhaustion.

What a wonderful picture of Jesus’ words, which He spoke to an audience of farmers or people familiar with farming.

Look again at Jesus’ words…
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.

Jesus is saying put down your burden of sin and hook up to my yoke of righteousness.

That looks like, on a daily basis rather than doing things the same old way, you…
Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. – Ephesians 4:23 NLT

Ephesians 4:21‭-‬24 (NLT) expounds on what Jesus was saying…
Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

Notice this passage says that because we have learned the truth that comes from Jesus we should throw off our old sinful nature and put on our new one of righteous living and holiness.

The Apostle Paul’s reminder that we’ve learned the truth that comes from Him, takes me back to Jesus’ words…
Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

This tells us that the burden switch requires training from the Master.

Here’s an expanded understanding of the switch, Jesus is telling us, stop trying to overcome sin or do right on your own, instead let Me show you how as I walk beside you, connected and we stay connected.

How do we switch our heavy burdens? Connect to Jesus and let Him lead you. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

Today’s song is…
Take My Yoke
https://youtu.be/ol__rw0u3nQ?si=lJ4CkYZOkwvkz9Ra

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)