Tired of being a work horse?

A yoke is a wooden beam, normally used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, used in different cultures, and for different types of oxen. Other animals that may be yoked include horses, mules, donkeys and water buffalo.
Symbolism
The yoke has of connotations of subservience; in some ancient cultures it was traditional to force a defeated enemy to pass beneath a symbolic yoke of spears or swords. A remnant of this tradition is the saber arch seen at some military weddings. The yoke may be a metaphor for something oppressive or burdensome, such as imperialism, or for a link or bond between two people, such as marriage. The yoke is frequently used metaphorically in the Bible.

Matthew 11:28-30 God’s Word Translation
Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Place my yoke over your shoulders, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble. Then you will find rest for yourselves because my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

In this passage, Jesus is saying that He is good and His system is good, not burdensome or difficult. Religious rules and regulations can be harsh and pressing and you can easily get overburdened if you do not know how to do everything you feel is expected of you. Jesus is saying here: “I’m not that way. My ways are not like that. They are not hard, harsh, sharp and pressing, but they are easy and light. Simplistically easy in reality! We often tend to want to make things hard and work for them because then we will deserve it! Well there is nothing we can or can not do to make us deserve Jesus and His mercy more or nothing we can or can not do take make Him love us less. So it’s pretty simplistic if He says my yoke is easy and my burden light then we can trust that He isn’t harsh, hard sharp or pressing as the yoke of religion often is. Instead His yoke is comfortable, gracious and pleasant and His burden is light and easy to be borne.

In my perception of this passage I think of our callings. What we naturally have strength and wisdom to do. The God given talents and abilities we naturally have. In the natural a yoke is used to pull a heavy load. I can tell you I have worked and pulled loads in my own strength and my own will on occasion and it was anything but easy and light. It was a constant up hill battle with a lot of stress, struggle and burn out! And I have had the opportunity to work within the parameters of my God given abilities and I was equipped with the wisdom and power to get things done without the stress, struggle and burn out! Was it always a cake walk, NO, but there was always comfort and grace in know you were doing what you were called to do.

I believe that Jesus leads us to a place that is comfortable, gracious and pleasant. A place where serving God is easy when we hear from Him and simply obey rather than struggle to do the things we were never called to do. There are a lot of us that go through life struggling, hating where we are hating our jobs when maybe it’s just time to say; “God what do you want me to do?” “God what talents do I have that can be used for you and for a life choice that would be light and easy?” Take time to seek God about whether your works are His works. The truth is God doesn’t want us to struggle through life he wants to lighten our loads we’ve been carrying on our own and to give us rest.