Go With Me Weekly Devotional

Go With ME

Embracing our Sacred Responsibility with Christ

My Burden … Christ's Burden

  George Mueller was a man of faith.  History has clearly revealed this.  Because he was a man who lived his faith out, meaning it was not only a theological admittance to heaven for him, Mueller was able to connect with Jesus Christ as few Christians do.  His faith didn’t just stop and hang out in his studies about Christ, as is often the case.  It went beyond the theology of Christ.  It went to a personal, living relationship with Him.  Through his faith, Mueller learned to transfer his burdens to Christ, and in doing so, stepped into an intimate, abiding, love relationship with Him. It changed the way he lived the rest of his life.  Look how he described it:  "At last I saw Christ as my Saviour.  I believed in Him and gave myself to Him. The burden rolled from off me, and a great love for Christ filled my soul. That was more than fifty years ago. I loved Jesus Christ then, but I loved Him more the year after, and more the year after that, and more every year since."  George Mueller What do we read in Mueller’s statement?  His life with Christ only began with His salvation experience.  The life he lived from that point took him to a place near to his Savior that grew closer every year.  How many of you desire this kind of connection with Christ?  How would you like to have your burdens be lifted off you, similar to a beast of burden being unshackled from a heavy load it has carried for a long time?  How would you like to connect with Christ as Mueller did and grow closer every year?  It can be done for you.  It should be done for you.  And you have been invited to have it done for you.  Look what Jesus invites you and me to: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Matt 11: 28-30 (NIV) What is the method Jesus uses for removing our burdens, so we can come closer to Him?  He states it clearly, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”  I think enough has been said about the “yoke.”  We know it means our faith and obedience to Him, as it connects us to Christ.  It is not our good works and busy church activities that “yoke” us to Him, even though these are good things.  Rather, it is the strong connection to Him by a relationship that is active, alive, and healthy.  So let’s understand.  It is the quality of our relationship with Christ that is important, not just our token acknowledgement of Him.   If we can nail down what the “yoke” means, and understand it, then we can then go to the next method Jesus uses for drawing us nearer to Him, which is to “learn from Him.”  In doing this, He will be able to keep our burdens manageable, and empower us to carry them.  So how do we learn from Him, and not be limited to only studying about Him.  Look what He says: Therefore they said to Him, "What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent." John 6:28-30 (NASB) Jesus takes us back to “believing in Him”, in order that we may learn from Him.  In this case, it is how we can do good works for God.  It seems when Jesus taught, he mostly taught about faith and belief in Him.  Is this what He wants us to learn from Him?  Is it as simple as this?  You would think Jesus is teaching that genuine faith is an essential thing, in order for us to carry everything else out He wants from us?  I believe it is. If faith so important to Jesus, I think we need to dig into the kind of faith Jesus teaches about in His word and challenge the kind that is comfortable, convenient, and only theoretical.  I am deeply concerned that God’s Church, especially in America, has grown into a type of faith that misses the target.  It seemingly keeps Christ back in the first century in its thinking and doesn’t connect that He is the Savior Who is alive and present, here and now.  It is also a faith that is not involved, not concerned, and is not occupied with day-to-day living, and decision-making.  This substitute faith is the antithesis to the type faith Jesus taught as true faith.  The Apostle Paul spotted this in pretend believers and called it “a form of godliness but denying its power.”  Can there be a better description of a Christian who is so caught up in the ways of the world, and the things of the world, that God has become irrelevant in their decision making and their morality?  They claim to be identified with Christ, but they will not take His yoke and will not learn from Him.  As a result, they strive for a belief without responsibility, one that doesn’t challenge their comfortable religious perspective.  I’ve got news for you!  Brother Paul said to stay away from such people who have this form of godliness.  I think it is good advice. As I read and study the Bible, the best I can determine, true faith in God must challenge every comfortable position we try to maintain.  Learning to walk and live by faith in God as George Mueller suggests, requires an “all or nothing” faith.  Now, please don’t get me wrong in thinking that I am saying we should all live a life as Mueller.  This is not what I suggest.  What I propose is that we should try to live out our faith as he did, but not mimic his life.  This would be the same for any person or character we greatly admire.  God wants each of us to have an individual expression of what it means to walk with Christ in faith.  He loves our individual expressions.  He has created us all different, with many different experiences in life and with various talents and spiritual gifts.  Christ desires to unload the burdens in our life that keep those talents and gifts in a place, hindered from the expression they can have.  When we take His yoke upon us, we declare to Him and to our self, our willingness to hand the control of our life over to Him.  This is the greatest step of faith we will ever take, for everything from this point will be a confirmation of our faith in Christ.  He will prove to us time and time again that the step we took in putting His yoke on our self was the best thing that ever happened to us.  The yoke of faith will enable Him to teach us as we have never been taught before, and our faith will, in turn, grow more each day.  As our faith grows, Christ reveals Himself more and more to us.  This is why Mueller said he grows more in love with Christ as the years go by.  It is because Christ reveals Himself more, and he saw Him as He is. Yes, George Mueller was sold out to Christ and lived a life of faith.  What we read in his quote was a declaration of what it gave him.  Do you think he ever regretted his decision?  I think he would say, “I wish I had known Him even earlier in my life, so I would have had more time to get to know Him.”  I have it on good authority that old George is getting to know Him better than ever before, since he has been with Jesus since 1898.  Let’s learn from this saint’s faith and allow it to assure us that the best decision we will ever make is to Abandon our self to Christ and to Trust Him absolutely. Learning to Abide, Rocky TO DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THIS DEVOTIONAL, CLICK HERE