“Ana, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soul.” – Matthew 11:29
One of my absolute favorite things I brought on this trip was a super sweet and thoughtful gift I received from a friend in the form of a journal. This isn’t just any journal though. It is a personalized journal. A journal with scriptures directly from God’s heart to mine. Every page has a scripture as quoted above, with my name in it, and everytime I journal I am reminded of just how personal and intimate the Lord is with me.
His heart isn’t solely after my worship and adoration. He wants me to take His yoke and learn from Him. To mirror Him. To find rest in Him. To know that I am fully known and loved by Him.
It’s been about 6 months since I started this “adventure of a lifetime”. & although there have been many adventures with the Lord, one of the things that struck me recently was that as much as I have been doing my best to be a reflection of Christ and be His hands and feet out here in the nations, the reality of it is every day isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always fun. In fact it’s probably one of the most challenging things ever.
You leave your entire “normal” life behind and trade it for a life full of uncertainty and the unexpected. It’s somewhat daunting at first. Then you realize that your new normal maybe isn’t so much different than what you left behind. Minus the responsibility of a career and maybe the luxuries we most definitely take for granted. But more times than not, you’re stepping into a different culture and lifestyle but you find out real quick that at the end of each day, we are all just human. We have a lot of the same struggles. Maybe some more than others, but we’re all just trying to “make” it.
We definitely see a different side of life in the interactions we have and relationships we form, but it is clear that we are all here with the same questions. As we embark on this journey of life, I’ve found that the deeper we go with God, the purpose of our lives becomes more evident. That doesn’t just happen however, you also have to be pursuing God. He will never stop pursuing you, He is just waiting for you to invite Him into your life.
Right now, I am in a place of complete peace and tranquility. I don’t really have any worries or stressors in my life. I’m completely enthralled by the goodness of God, His favor on me and the way He loves His people. Of course, my heart also breaks in some instances for those around me in difficult situations or when I don’t quite understand some of the things I see or experience, but I know that I can trust God to show me His heart for others. I know He will prepare and equip me to be compassionate and love them with the same love He pours out on me daily. I just want to be the best version of myself that I can be in Christ and share that with the world around me.
One of the things that I have felt like I’ve been struggling with lately is not feeling productive or like I’m not being filled up in my current community living situation. & it’s not because I’m not with wise or God fearing people that speak life into others, rather I believe it was more about God teaching me to stay focused on Him. & although we all have a sense of responsibility as Christians to pour into others, I think God just wanted to remind me that ultimately He is who I should be gleaning the most from. My cup should be running over by what I receive from God, not necessarily from others. I shouldn’t be expectant of what I can glean from my neighbor but rather look to my Father, from which all treasures of wisdom and knowledge come from. What better teacher than Christ Himself?
All that to simply say, that if we look for God’s heart for us, the things He wants to teach us and the direction in which He wants us to go, all we need to do is “take His yoke upon us” and when we do that, we will most definitely find rest in Him!
