Take the Easy Yoke

A prayer for today by Scotty Smith, based on Matthew 11:28-30 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, 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. Matt. 11:28-30

Dear Lord Jesus, how can we not respond to such a grand and grace-full invitation? Your gentle, lowly heart is irresistible to us; and your “easy yoke and light burden,” alone, provide the rest for which we long. Thank you for being so welcoming, understanding, and kind.

Some of us are paralyzed from the lingering pain of old relational wounds—seemingly unable to get unstuck and free. Some of us are reeling from the impact of fresh betrayals and knee-buckling hard news. Some of us are much more lonely in our marriages than we ever were in our singleness. Some of us are undone by the injustices and evil we see paraded throughout the world.

Some of us seem permanently allergic to your grace—so unable to really believe you love us as much as you say you do. Some of us are quietly suffering the destructive shame of embarrassing weaknesses and uncontrollable obsessions. Some of us are tired, spent, and disillusioned, from the unrealistic demands and unexpected sucker-punches of serving you. ALL of us need you, and ALL of us are objects of your affection.

Jesus, we need you in this moment. Flood our hearts with your presence and peace. Grant us the assurance that you are enough. Give us the daily mercies and sufficient grace you have pledged.

Be the great Warrior of our hearts as you rebuke the devil on our behalf. Don’t let the dark one seize our current situations for spewing his toxins and accusations, lies and condemnation.

Jesus, help us walk today as a people of faith, hope, and love. Give us the wisdom and power you promise. Bring much glory to yourself, as we bring our restless selves to you. Write stories of redemption, refreshment and renewal, by your hand of mercy and might. So very Amen we pray, with thankfulness, in your most worthy and gracious name.

HT: Liberate 

Performance Driven or Grace Motivated?

Great teaching on the danger of being performance driven vs. grace motivated from Jerry Bridges: 

Evangelicals commonly think today that the gospel is only for unbelievers. Once we’re inside the kingdom’s door, we need the gospel only in order to share it with those who are still outside. Now, as believers, we need to hear the message of discipleship. We need to learn how to live the Christian life and be challenged to go do it. That’s what I believed and practiced in my life and ministry for some time. It is what most Christians seem to believe.

As I see it, the Christian community is largely a performance-based culture today. And the more deeply committed we are to following Jesus, the more deeply ingrained the performance mindset is. We think we earn God’s blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life.....

......So I learned that Christians need to hear the gospel all of their lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but upon what Christ did for us in his sinless life and sin-bearing death. I began to see that we stand before God today as righteous as we ever will be, even in heaven, because he has clothed us with the righteousness of his Son. Therefore, I don’t have to perform to be accepted by God.

Now I am free to obey him and serve him because I am already accepted in Christ (see Rom. 8:1). My driving motivation now is not guilt but gratitude. Yet even when we understand that our acceptance with God is based on Christ’s work, we still naturally tend to drift back into a performance mindset. Consequently, we must continually return to the gospel. To use an expression of the late Jack Miller, we must “preach the gospel to ourselves every day.” For me that means I keep going back to Scriptures such as Isaiah 53:6, Galatians 2:20, and Romans 8:1. It means I frequently repeat the words from an old hymn, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.

         - Jerry Bridges, The Pursuit of Holiness

Hat Tip:  Take Your Vitamin Z: Are You Performance Driven?

..Because We Want To

"...as we trust in Christ, he changes our hearts, minds and lives.  He transforms how we see, feel and act...

...any low-grade sense of guilt gets conquered by a high-grade sense of gospel that compels a willing, urgent, joyful, uncompromising, grace-saturated, God-glorifying obedience in us.  We live sacrificially, not because we feel guilty, but because we have been loved greatly and now find satisfaction in sacrificial love for others.  We live radically, not because we have to, but because we want to."

            - David Platt, Radical Together, page 31