'This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:
"Break up your unploughed ground and do not sow among thorns"
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
Circumcise your hearts"' (Jeremiah 4:3)
The rest into which we are invited in Matt 11:28-30 is a yoked rest, a burdened rest.
Though the yoke is easy and the burden light, they are still burdens, still present.
It is not a free-for-all rest, it is a purposeful retreat. It's not a chance to sit back and kick off your sandals - it's something else entirely...
The rest is from having to plough my own furrows all by myself; it is a rest in which Christ shoulders the burden with me, in fact He gives me a whole new yoke - a yoke that fits two people instead of one. The rest is from having to do life alone, from legalism, from self-righteousness, from somehow thinking it depends on me.
Only yoked together with Christ can I "Break up my unploughed ground"
So it is ready to be planted, sown.
So my life can yield crops and a harvest for God's glory.
But the vast harvest begins with the very unimpressive breaking up of my unploughed ground.
Sower of seeds and Sharer of yokes, where is my life unploughed, barren, dry, useless?
Reveal it to me so I can shoulder my yoke with You and turn my face to the task before me.
Prepare my life for Your harvest, O Reaper of Glory.
Amen
Written on 27.07.10 as part of a day of retreat. Brockville, Ontario, overlooking the St Lawrence River
"Break up your unploughed ground and do not sow among thorns"
Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
Circumcise your hearts"' (Jeremiah 4:3)
The rest into which we are invited in Matt 11:28-30 is a yoked rest, a burdened rest.
Though the yoke is easy and the burden light, they are still burdens, still present.
It is not a free-for-all rest, it is a purposeful retreat. It's not a chance to sit back and kick off your sandals - it's something else entirely...
The rest is from having to plough my own furrows all by myself; it is a rest in which Christ shoulders the burden with me, in fact He gives me a whole new yoke - a yoke that fits two people instead of one. The rest is from having to do life alone, from legalism, from self-righteousness, from somehow thinking it depends on me.
Only yoked together with Christ can I "Break up my unploughed ground"
So it is ready to be planted, sown.
So my life can yield crops and a harvest for God's glory.
But the vast harvest begins with the very unimpressive breaking up of my unploughed ground.
Sower of seeds and Sharer of yokes, where is my life unploughed, barren, dry, useless?
Reveal it to me so I can shoulder my yoke with You and turn my face to the task before me.
Prepare my life for Your harvest, O Reaper of Glory.
Amen
Written on 27.07.10 as part of a day of retreat. Brockville, Ontario, overlooking the St Lawrence River
