Matthew 11: 28 - 30 NKJV
We all have issues in our life. We all share those times where we feel that the tribulations that we carry are ours and ours alone. Well, I know from experience that once we start to feel that we have no advocate for the troubles in our life, then we will start down a dark and lonely path. Believe me, I've been there. I used to wonder why it was that Jesus spoke those famous words of "take my yoke" to all who would listen. Well, the answer is easy once we realize what I believe to be the true reason for all of those troubles we come across. See, God never intended for His children to live a life of fear or anxiety {1 John 4:18}. It was never Gods intention to push us through prolonged periods of suffering just to make a few christian self help authors rich off of our pain. Now, I know that I'm going to hear more than a few institutional thinkers who still cling to the belief that our heavenly Father causes us to walk through our pain and crisis in order to somehow increase our endurance in living life. I think that's crap. If this were true at all, then why would Jesus ask Gods children to take His burden instead? Think about it, why didn't Jesus simply tell us "keep that burden of yours and I'll teach you endurance through all the crap you go through in life?" Well, I'm of the belief that if Jesus didn't say it, then just maybe He doesn't desire for me to do it. There are a lot of wonderful words of advice spoken by Christ in scripture, but some of the most important might be recorded in Matthew 11. Now, I will never know the burdens the people Jesus spoke to were facing, but I'm quite certain that they rivaled the trials I go through in my own life. The need for food, shelter and acceptance. We all share these burdens. But are they ours to endure alone? Absolutely not! Besides the fact that Christ encourages us to release our burdens to Him is the truth that I have never been seperated from the presence of Christ. Paul writes to us in Galations that it is Jesus who lives through us today {Galations 2:20}. Many a institutional church thinker profess to believe in the "indwelling" Christ, yet cannot fathom the idea that Jesus could be in us. Well, if Christ Jesus is "indwelled" in me...He is IN ME.
6And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, b“Abba, Father! 7Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir cof God through Christ.
Galations 4: 6 - 7 NKJV
So, if God never intended His children to walk through trials in their lives alone, why in the heck does He allow me to go through them? Doesn't He love me? My friend, you could never put a measure to the love that your heavenly Father has for you. Our sunday morning group is shared with a man who insists on the institutional church belief God somehow rules the world with a iron fist. He is a vengeful, angry and just God. Oh, yeah, He's merciful to those who believe too. I've told this man on many occasions that I don't serve the same God which he serves. This is a statement he simply can't understand. My God is not sitting in heaven like a rent a cop simply waiting for me to screw up. That's not who God is. If it was then the scriptures would have layed it out for us. Instead, we are told that God is not a angry, but a loving God {1 John 4:8}. The scriptures do not tell us that He releases His fury upon us when we sin, but that when we realize we are doing wrong we have a advocate in Him. Those trials I have endured in my life have never been faced alone. This is what more than a few christians fail to recognize about God. The battle is not, nor has it ever been ours alone. This is exactly why Jesus tells us to "take My burden." It was never Christs intent to live seperate from us. When we walk through those trials of life, it is Christ Jesus who is walking with us, right there in the mud and muck we call life. It was never Gods intention that we would endure the burdens of life by ourselves. For this denotes a seperation between ourselves and God, which has simply never been true. We compare God to a loving Father while we instill in Him the traits of a stern diciplinatian. We praise Him as "Abba Father" as we await His punishment. Forgive me, but if this is your view of God, then you and I are serving two different Gods. If God is Love, as scripture tells us, He will never take joy out of punishing His children. However, as our loving heavenly Father, He will allow us to endure the consequences of our own choices as He walks with us. This is the God I serve.
18‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19“and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’20“And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21“And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’22“But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24‘for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’And they began to be merry.
Luke 15: 18 - 23 NKJV
~Scott~
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