“Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30).

I’ve always loved this verse. I’ve always loved this verse because it’s so comforting. I loved the idea that the yoke Jesus offers is easy and the burden is light. I am all about easy and light.

After having lived for 53 years, I now know I’ve been completely wrong about this verse.

What I wanted was easy and light. I would love for easy and light to be the theme of my life. That would be great. But, as you know, that’s not life. Not on this planet.

What I failed to realize is that it’s still a yoke. Yokes bind. Yokes are burdensome. Yokes restrict. Yokes are always hard and heavy. Basically, yokes kinda suck.

So, what does Jesus mean when he says, “Take my yoke upon you, for my yoke is easy and my burden light”?

I don’t think easy and light have to do with weight and girth. I think what Jesus is saying is, not that yoke stops being a yoke, but that because the yoke under Jesus now is purposeful, that the yoke under Jesus is borne out of love makes it easy and light.

You see, when I have to carry a load because I have to I guarantee that load will be heavy and burdensome. If I have to carry a load without knowing why, that load will always be heavy and hard to bear. But if the load I carry is for my beloved, for someone I cherish, that changes everything. I gladly bear that load. Knowing the purpose, having love be the reason changes everything.

It’s still a yoke. It’s still hard and heavy. But it is not burdensome nor purposeless. Knowing the purpose makes the yoke meaningful. Love changes everything!

“Let your gentleness be known to all. The Lord is near” (Philippians 4:5).

This is an odd verse.

If we didn’t know this came from the Bible, we would find it odd that being gentle is a virtue. It doesn’t sit well with the American ideal of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps, life is tough get over it attitude. I am not sure if this gentleness thing would work so well in the corporate world either. I can’t remember reading a single book about leadership in the secular setting that advocates gentleness.

Yet, here it is.

The Greek word for gentleness can be translated as gentleness and forbearance. The idea is that the trait God is asking that his disciples display is gentleness in the form of forbearance. It means that we value the needs and the intricacies of the other. It means that we put the good of others, not over our own needs, but that it is as important. It means we recognize that we are not the same. We value different things. And, that’s okay. We will forbear.

Wow. Can you imagine a church living this out? Little Church and Lakewoodgrace, we are not perfect but I love seeing this trait in you. We don’t always have to get our way. What is good for the whole is good for us.

The motivation for gentleness and forbearance is that the “Lord is near.”

This can mean a couple of things.

1. It can mean that the second return of Christ as Master and Judge is near. That is a perfectly good understanding of this phrase.
2. It can also mean that wherever Christ-followers are, the Lord is in that space because the Lord is in the disciple. Therefore, wherever the disciple is, the ways of the Lord ought to be present.

Both are good understandings of the phrase, “the Lord is near.”

We are to demonstrate in our lives the quality of gentleness and forbearance because the Lord is near. As you might have guessed, this isn’t a gentle suggestion. This is a command. It’s an imperative.

How can you put into practice gentleness and forbearance today?

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

Oh, wow!

“And the devil will flee from you…”

I want that! That sounds so good. I really want that.

How can we do that?

The writer of James tells us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

The million dollar question is, “How can I resist the devil?” Because, you see, I don’t seem to do a very good job at resisting the devil. In fact, my track record in resisting the devil is not very promising.

The devil has a tool up his sleeve that seems to get me more times than I would like to admit. It’s called temptation. And the thing about temptation is that I have yet to meet a temptation I don’t like. In fact, most temptations, I really, really like.

If temptations tasted like cauliflower, looked like a pile of dung, felt like stepping on a lego with bare feet I would never be tempted by temptations.

But that’s not how temptations work for me. My temptations never taste like cauliflower, look like a pile of dung, or feel terrible. At least, for the moment, my temptations taste awesome, look awesome, and feel awesome.

That’s the problem with temptations. How am I supposed to resist that?

Aha! Here’s the key. It’s not about me trying to resist the temptations of the devil so much as it is about submitting myself to God. The power isn’t in me. The power is in God. The key to resisting the temptations of the devil is not me trying harder, but me submitting to God.

When we submit to God, we resist the devil. And when the devil comes across people submitted to God, the devil flees.