Consolation, Part 2

In our last meditation we began considering the steps recommended by our Lord to experience the consolation that is in Him. These steps are found in Matthew 11:28-30. The first step is simply to come to Him. We need to bring to Him whatever weights us down and drains our energy. That old song we love says it so well:

O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!

Secondly, we experience consolation by taking Christ’s yoke upon us. This involves submitting to His will and control. When you yoke a horse or an ox, it is for the purpose of steering the beast where you want him to go to do what you want. Yoking is not about doing the will of the beast. It is about doing your will. Now apply this to the Lord Jesus Christ and His yoke for us. Wearing His yoke is about His will, now ours. Anxiety makes any affliction much more difficult to bear and a great deal of our anxiety arises from our will. We want the Lord to do what we want when we want. We want Him to wear our yoke so we can direct Him where we want Him to go. Well, I have news for you. Nobody but nobody steers Almighty God. You might as well get that settled right now.

Isaiah 40:13  Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor hath taught him?
14  With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?

Our attempt to drive God only creates frustration and an unbearable burden. When we take His yoke upon us, submitting to Him and His way, even though we can’t understand it, we get relief. As He said, “ye shall find rest unto your souls.” We can rest in the assurance that nothing can separate us from His love and that, therefore, He has our best interests at heart and will do right by us in life and in death. Ceding the control of our lives to Christ we then draw on the consolation in Him.

Judy Masching, a member of our congregation, sent this quote that fits nicely with what I am saying: "When we reduce (adjust) our expectations, we will also reduce (adjust) our frustrations." Adjusting our expectations to what God has promised rather than to the fulfillment of our wills, reduces much of our frustration, which in turn conserves our energy.

Furthermore, relief comes in bearing His yoke. We need to exchange the requirements that we and others place upon us for the requirements that He places upon us. The early churches were plagued with the error of the Pharisees, who had believed, but who taught the Gentiles that they had to be circumcised and to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. There was a council of the apostles and elders held at Jerusalem to consider this issue and it was decided that no such burden should be placed upon the Gentiles. Observe how Peter described this burden that the Pharisees were placing upon the Gentile converts:

Acts 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they.

This was a yoke that the Pharisees, not Jesus, were placing upon these disciples. Read the conclusion of the council in this passage:

Acts 15:24  Forasmuch as we have heard, that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words, subverting your souls, saying, Ye must be circumcised, and keep the law: to whom we gave no such commandment:
25  It seemed good unto us, being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
26  Men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
27  We have sent therefore Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
28  For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things;
29  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.
30  So when they were dismissed, they came to Antioch: and when they had gathered the multitude together, they delivered the epistle:
31  Which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation.

Observe that when this unnecessary burden that the Pharisees had placed on the Gentiles was lifted, “they rejoiced for the consolation.” You see, they exchanged the heavy yoke that men had placed upon them, for the easy and light yoke of Jesus. Hence, their load was lightened, that is, they were consoled. This is the consolation in Christ.

We load so much on ourselves and we let others load so much on us that our Lord never required. Step back from your burden and ask yourself this question:

Deuteronomy 10:12  …what doth the LORD thy God require of thee?

Let the Scriptures of truth answer that question. Do what the Lord requires of you and you will do well. It does not matter what others think of you so long as He approves of you. And the burdens the Lord places upon us are easy and light. They don’t drain us like the burdens of men. It is amazing how much time and energy we spend trying to secure and maintain the good opinion of others. We become like Martha, “careful and troubled about many things.” We neglect that “one thing needful,” which is to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of Him (Luke 10:38-42). And technology does not make this any easier. Today we can contact more people, more quickly and easily than ever, which in turn causes us to feel responsible to contact more people about more things and it also causes more people to expect us to contact them and respond to them. On and on the burdens multiply. But what does the Lord require? That is the all-important concern. Learning and applying the answer to that question will remove a lot of burdens from you. And this brings us to step three: Learning of Him. God willing, we will deal with that next time.