Trust is the yoke of Jesus

Have you ever wondered where God is? Sometimes He seems too far away to be living inside of us. When feeling out of touch with God, we find our evidence of His nearness in the scriptures and in memories of our relationship during closer times. It is not uncommon to have seasons of distance in our lives, yet God is still very near us, teaching us to trust Him, His Word, and yes, His love for us.

My husband and I had a season of intense glued-to-the-Lord ministry for five years. He was constantly speaking to us in dreams and while awake. We walked with the Lord and felt secure because of His constant involvement in our lives. Then came a different and much harder season. It was a season of application of all that He had shown us. We were like stumbling students, groping for our way in the darkness. And yet, God was very near us then, as before.

Last night Dave and I were talking about the second (and least favored) season. By contrast, it left us feeling abandoned and rejected. Yet by reason of the scriptures and our experience with the Lord, we knew He would never do that. We were seeing things from the perspective of the world. In the world, if a friend changes their involvement with you, you begin to suspect that something’s gone wrong, and wonder what you did to offend them. Yet God’s love for us and His purposes for our lives are ever-lasting. He was not trying to make things harder for us; He is teaching us that trusting Him will make life easier. When we trust, we feel secure.

As I settled in to pray, the Lord began to speak about our nature being like His. We are created in the image of God. I love giving gifts at Christmas, so this is what the Lord brought up. He also loves giving gifts. I felt once again His residing presence inside as He talked about how we, His children, are much like Him. And yet, He is more. We do not need to depend on our own efforts to bless people for God has put His own gifts under the Tree to bless those we love.

The Lord spoke of the gifts He gives and His motive for giving. Though Jesus loves to make people happy, that is not His motivation for giving. His gifts develop people into who they are called to be and cause them to eventually act like He does. When we look at the long-term effects of the gifts of God residing in a person we see that each person is molded by their gifts into a certain aspect of God’s nature. Prophets speak for God, Teachers teach like Jesus, Shepherds care for people like Jesus . . . and on and on it goes. The gift of eternal life causes us to embrace others with forgiveness and encouragement, just as God forgives and encourages us daily.

Besides giving Christmas gifts, we are hosts to our family’s celebration of Christmas. Often it seems like my husband and I are the glue that holds our family and its traditions together. This morning the Lord resumed our conversation about His children being created in God’s image. He showed me that holding things together is part of His image and led me to read Col 1:17;

“He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

The Lord asserted that, in truth, it is He who holds our lives and our family together, and it does not rely on our efforts alone. He brought back wonderful memories of other people joining together to accomplish things I had never thought of. It was Christ at work in them, and He was holding things together. I just needed to trust Him. Trust is the yoke that ties us to Jesus and makes our load lighter. He said;

“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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Mt 11:29-30)

After our conversation I felt comforted. I leaned on my trust of God like relaxing in a lazy-boy chair. Yes, we will be busy this season, giving gifts and hosting Christmas day. But we are doing the least of the work, and my Lord is doing the greater. And I like that arrangement. God indeed resides within us, and the evidence of that is seen in His nature expressing itself through our lives (2 Cor 4:7). There is a security in knowing that, as we are, He is greater, and that He is holding our lives together, and not we ourselves. We just need to trust Him.