Unity: Pulling Through

"My yoke is Easy....my burden is light!" -Matthew 11:30

The Bible is full of little treasures.  Things that we read over and don't understand fully, but that blow our minds when we take time to look a little deeper.  The secret of the plowing oxen is one of my favorites.  

The Word uses many examples to teach us about ourselves - in more than one area, we are compared to those sowing a field or oxen plowing a field to get it ready to plant.   As believers, we sometimes find ourselves like those oxen, working hard to plow through life and make way for God's kingdom.  We try HARD to be right, act right, look right and stand up for what's right.  But Jesus shows us a treasure when he tells us to take on HIS yoke.  

A yoke is a device used to hook 2 animals together so the load isn't as difficult to bear. When one oxen gets super tired, the other is linked right next to him to help.  When one moves forward, so does the other; even if he's tired, he is able to move forward next to the other.

Jesus never intended for us to pull all the weight of righteous living on our own!  He is the yoke, and we and our fellow believers are the oxen!  He binds us together, and then we are able to spur one another on in Godliness.  His yoke is easy and his burden is light because we carry it together, and the burden of right living is much lighter when done with his Spirit connecting us to others who will encourage us forward!

Maybe today you are trying to plow alone and need to ask him to give you the yoke of His spirit in a new way.  Maybe you are in need of a Christian friend (another ox to come along side you) or maybe you are being called to be that second ox, to step in and support and encourage a friend today!  Listen to the Lord and plow through in unity.  The load was never meant to be borne alone!