“He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD.” // Psalm 40:3-4

All other religions have one thing in common: You must work for your salvation. You must do enough good to outweigh the bad. You must earn your place. But Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who work and are heavy-burdened, and I will give you rest.” “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:29-30‬

A “Yoke” in Jesus day was used for joining two things. Jesus is asking us to be joined to Him, because His burden is not work, it is easy. It is a relationship based on grace. There is no striving to achieve your “enlightenment” when we follow and learn from Jesus. We don’t try to clear the “bad” by doing enough “good”. Jesus makes us righteous because He has that authority and He disarmed the power of sin and death over our spirit. Flowing from the new identity we’re given, and through having peace with God, good works come naturally.

The fact of life is that we all unite ourselves to something. Some kind of belief. We all worship something. Wouldn’t you rather be united to, and be worshipping, the One True God of the universe? When you study the real thing, the counterfeit gods are easy to spot. In the past 7 years, I’ve been freed from my own self-made prison in various areas of my heart… a pornography addition, lust, emptiness, pride, anger, addiction to weed, etc. My life is an ongoing testimony, because we never quite “arrive”. God, to this day, continues to free me from various struggles as I seek His truth, apply it to my life, and put my trust in Him. Right now, I’m really enjoying learning how to LOVE more and more.

(thumbnail: “chakra-still” by cyberpunk65 is licensed under CC BY 2.0)