Jesus tells us something very profound and yet simple in Matthew 11.  He says in verse 30, “My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  We were talking about verses 28-30 this past Sunday at church.  I wrote the other day about the need to be obedient and follow Jesus.  Jesus statement here is something that seems to have been lost by so many in religious culture today.  The simplistic side of faith in Christ that does not carry with it the weight of religious rules and hoops.  Jesus’s yoke, His teachings, are easy.

This life, this world gets so bogged down.  We carry on us so many burdens and weight trying t life.  Trying to keep up with the demands of the world.  It’s amazing that something so profound gets so lost, especially in religious circles.  I can tell you this.  I cannot, absolutely cannot stand religion.  It drives so many people away from true faith in Christ.  It drives so many people away from Him altogether and they end up living lives for themselves.  Jesus tells us to take His yoke and learn from Him and through His humbleness, gentleness, and Truth we will find rest for our souls.  It’s not religious non-sense.  It’s real Truth locked into a real relationship in Him, if we will but open ourselves to Him.

We spend so much time, especially in our faith, trying to keep up with demands of the religious.  The world has created for itself growing bondage through the religious fog that makes faith so difficult and drives us away.  It drove me away for many years.  Look at the southern United States, in what has been called the Bible belt.  Our pastor, Tim, refers to it as the Bondage belt.  That’s exactly what it has become.  You see it everywhere.  Religion blurring what true faith in Christ is.  What real Joy, Love, and Peace in Christ is.

His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  That’s because it is for us all.  It is not made for the religious elite alone.  Jesus came for all of us and the door remains open for all of us, if we will just get out of our own self-righteous and self-reliant way and let Him in and choose to follow Him.

1 John 5:3 tells us, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”  Be honest here.  How hard is it to love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.  All of the commandments and teaching stem from these two commandments.  If we can get out of our old self and follow Christ, this becomes a lot easier than you may ever think.  Is it always easy in this world?  Of course not.  There will always be people that piss us off in some way.  There will things that happen in life that will try get us to question God or even doubt Him.

Jesus is the example to follow, though.  1 Peter 2:21, “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.”  We have to choose to follow in His steps though.  When you learn to do this, you will find your true self, because He will show it to you.  You will become to come out from behind the fig leaf and stop living from the false self when you can make the choice live your entire life with the focal point of following Jesus.  C.S Lewis said, “Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self.”

Just think about this folks.  Choosing to follow Jesus is a big step for everyone.  Once you have made that choice, you can’t be half-way in.  I’ve been there and I know.  It’s not as difficult as you think, though.  Choosing faith in Christ and choosing to follow Him and actually following Him, is not difficult and overbearing.  Jesus says that Himself.  His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  Let’s choose to follow Him.