GOD’S WORD FOR APRIL 12 ~ ~ Matthew 11:29 ~ ~ “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls”
We are reading from Andrew Murray’s famous and beloved classic book from the late 1800’s ~ ~ “Abide in Christ.”
Do not these words of the Savior reveal what you have perhaps often sought in vain to know, how it is that the rest you at times enjoy is so often lost? It must have been this: you had not understood how entire surrender to Jesus is the secret of perfect rest. Giving up one’s whole life to Him, for Him alone to rule and order; taking up His yoke and submitting to be led and taught, to learn from Him; abiding in Him, to be and do ONLY what HE wills – these are the conditions of discipleship, without which there can be no thought of maintaining the rest that was bestowed on first coming to Christ. The rest is in Christ and not something He gives apart from Himself, so it is only in having Him that the rest can really be kept and enjoyed.
It is because so many young believers fail to lay hold of this truth that the rest so speedily passes away. Some really did not know; they were never taught how Jesus claims the undivided allegiance of the whole heart and life, how there is not a spot in our entire lives over which He does not wish to reign, how in the very least things His disciples must ONLY seek to please Him.
They did not know how entire the consecration was that Jesus claimed. With others, who had some idea of the holy life a Christian ought to lead, the mistake was a different one: they could not believe such a life to be a possible attainment. Taking, bearing, and never for a moment laying aside the yoke of Jesus appeared to them to require such a strain of effort and such an amount of goodness as to be altogether beyond their reach. The very idea of always, all the day, abiding in Jesus, was too high – something they might attain to after a life of holiness and growth, but certainly not what a feeble beginner was to start with.
They did not know how, when Jesus said, “My yoke is easy” (Matthew 11:30), He spoke the truth; how the yoke gives rest, because the moment the soul yields itself to obey, the Lord Himself gives the strength and joy to do it.
They did not notice now, when He said, “Learn of Me,” He added, “I am meek and lowly in heart,” to assure them that His gentleness would meet their need and bear them as a mother bears her feeble child.
OH, they did not know that when He said, “Abide in Me” (John 15:4), He only asked the surrender to Himself; His almighty love would hold them fast and keep and bless them.
So, as some had erred from the lack of full consecration, so these failed because they DIDN’T FULLY TRUST. These two, consecration and faith, are the essential elements of the Christian life – the giving up all to Jesus, — the receiving all from Jesus. They are implied in each other; they are united in the one word: “SURRENDER.”
A FULL SURRENDER IS TO OBEY AS WELL AS TO TRUST, AND TO TRUST AS WELL AS TO OBEY!