Day 33 | 40-Day Lenten Fast & Devotional

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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 will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. -Matthew 11:28

Good morning, good morning, grace and peace be unto all of you, my Father's children. It is in fact day number 33 of our 40-day Lenten devotional. This week we have been discussing the concept and the notion of humility. We'll close out this wonderful Friday, albeit a bit dreary outside, but definitely full of grace, hope on this day. I want us to take a look at the Gospel According to Matthew, the 11th chapter, and I'm going to read a few verses that close out this chapter. This ought to be familiar to many of us. We've heard it before, but if we could put the context of humility as a lens for how Christ spoke to these disciples, I think that it'll give us some marching orders to conclude our week. Matthew chapter 11, starting at verse number 28. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon me and learn from me that I am gentle and humble in heart, and your yoke will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” I'm going to read that same word. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. I'm gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.”

This  scripture, this scripture, it really gives us some marching orders as we move forward. Remember that it opens up with John the Baptist's disciples going to see Jesus. While John was in prison, he began to lose faith. He began to get weary. He began to be frustrated and even questioned the things that he already knew in his heart about the Christ that we serve. He says,  go there to Jesus.  He sends his disciples and says, and ask him, is he the one that we've been waiting for or should we look for another? I mean,  I like the fact that Christ's response was not arrogant. Christ's response recognized the place that John was in that ultimately as John was facing this area of persecution while being in prison, he wanted to encourage him. He didn't want to come to question the very notion of what was taking place, but more so to be in an area to say, hey, I get it. I'm getting ready to give you rest, but in order to do so, your spirit has to be humble. And when he said to give him rest, I like this. This life is full of trouble, there are going to be stresses, there's going to be drama, there's going to be issues. There's going to be times when it seems heavy. He said, but I need you to adopt my spirit in your movement. I need you to be able to find your way to trust in me anyways. He says, if you trust in me, and if you take the characteristics that I've given you, there's going to be relief. He says, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

It's not saying that life becomes light. It is saying  that ultimately you are tapping into an ability to deal with life differently. You can't avoid what takes place, can't avoid there are circumstances and situations that are just going to come. But it's how we approach it. Our approach to life ought to be with the same spirit that Christ has. So when we receive bad news, when we see disturbing emotions,  when we receive stressful situations, the idea is not to lean into our own feelings, but to adopt the Spirit of Christ, to be humble. Inside of that humility, God is going to  infiltrate to give you the ability to withstand. And that's really what I want to hear on today. The good news for us is not that you're going to live a life  free of trouble.

But if you operate with the spirit of Christ with a level of humility, that you will be able to deal and handle with all the trouble that comes. And that's really what he wanted to express to the disciples. Mind you, Christ is making his journey to the cross right here. So he's given some marching orders. Something like I'll be here at the whole time. As a matter of fact, I go to prepare a place for you. He said, but what I need you to do, is take a page out of my book, walking humility.

That's my word for you on this morning. I pray that it has been enlightening, it's been uplifting.  Again, tomorrow we have our Saturday morning prayer at eight, followed by, of course, on Sunday morning is Palm Sunday, Triumph and Entry. And I've got a  special announcement that I'm going to give you guys on Sunday, so definitely you don't want to miss it! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and be blessed.