1/92

—Morning Thoughts.DO 2848

1. Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour & are heavy laden, & I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you‚ & learn of Me; for I am meek & lowly in heart: & ye shall find rest unto your souls."—Mat.11:28-30. I guess He put that in there about being meek & lowly‚ because pride's a killer! If you're meek & lowly, you can just relax & "find rest unto your souls." (Maria: When you relax, that means you cast your care on the Lord.) Yes. In other words, you don't try to be somebody or anything more than you are, or anything more than Jesus is. He's setting you the example, "Just be meek & lowly & ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy‚ & My burden is light."

2. A yoke is something oxen wear to pull the load. It's well-padded to be easy on the ox, so you can pull your load easily & it doesn't make the load too heavy. If it's too heavy or your yoke isn't easy, it's because you are making it heavy, or you're letting something else make it heavy & hard. So you're just to take it easy today, Honey, & not carry too much of a burden. (Maria: Yes, Sir. That sounds wonderful!)

3. See, the yoke is the means by which you pull the load, & the burden is your load, your job. So it should be light & easy. So if you start working too hard & worrying too much, you're getting out of line, because "His yoke is easy & His burden is light." When it's not easy & it's not light, then something's wrong. You should just be meek & lowly, & that makes it a lot easier. You don't have to live up to somebody else's standards, just the Lord's, & His are very low & meek & humble & restful.

4. He says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour & are heavy-laden"—in other words, you're working too hard & your burden's too heavy—"& I will give you rest, for My yoke is easy, & My burden is light." If you'll just be meek & lowly like Jesus, your yoke will be easy & your burden will be light, & you'll find rest unto your souls. He says, "I will give you rest." Thank You Lord! Those are good lessons for you, Honey.

5. I don't think I have quite such a problem with that, because I tend to be a little lazy. (Maria: You're not lazy at all! Even when you're tired, lots of times you still keep going & pushing. But you sure can relax!) The ox can't just stand still, the ox has to pull & do what little it has to do. I have to keep pushing through my papers. I can't just stop. I have to keep pulling till I get the job done, the job of the day, but then I can rest, thank the Lord! He said His yoke is easy & His burden is light—the job is easy & the load is light. If I just stay meek & lowly, if I don't try too hard to be somebody I'm not‚ then He'll give me rest. In other words, don't try to do more than you're supposed to.

6. That's your little early morning lesson, Honey! Let's see if we can get something out of all these Scriptures we have on our wall, maybe one each morning.

7. We can call this "Morning Thoughts!" If you'll remember that little lesson all day‚ it will help you all day long. Praise the Lord! It doesn't take an awful lot‚ you've just gotta get hitched up & into your harness & remember not to try to do more than you're able or be somebody you aren't, & just start walking & pulling.—And don't pull too hard & don't be overburdened, & you'll find rest to your soul! There's a lot in those little verses! Thank You Jesus!

8. So if you find out you can't pull it today, it means you're trying to pull too much. Or if you find out it hurts‚ then your yoke is too tight & you'd better cry for help. Just don't try to pull more than you can. If the yoke hurts‚ it's because you're trying to pull too heavy a load. So all ye that labour too much, too hard & are too heavily laden, relax‚ be meek & lowly! Quit trying to pull so much, & then the yoke won't hurt, because His burden is light. Be meek & lowly‚ don't try to be too much, & He will give you rest.

9. Sometimes we let other people make our loads too heavy & our yoke too hard by trying to carry too much of theirs, by trying to help them too much. But if they're not willing to do anything for themselves, or even pull their own share of the load, then you can't do it for them. You just have to let them go their own way & find out the hard way in the bitter school of experience, like the Prodigal Son. And just hope that maybe some day they'll get smart & come home again after they've spent all their funds & energy & wisdom, or rather foolishness. Just let'm run out of steam until they slow down to a stop, like the Prodigal Son did. Then maybe they'll have time to think things over & realise what a mistake they made, & have the humility to come back again. That kind of backslider is only a prodigal, he's still a son‚ & he's going to come home, eventually. The apostates go their own way until they crash. The true son will come back eventually, the apostate will keep on going till he crashes.

10. I've found out it's easier to be simple. Theologians & modern education love to be complicated, they love to make it confusing. I have to boil everything down to the bare essentials & make the problem as simple as possible, & then the solution is a lot easier. I think I've tried to do this in my teaching, like you do with little children. (Maria: Yes, that's what makes it so refreshing!) Because "except ye become as a little child," you'll in no wise enter into the wisdom of Heaven. (Mat.18.3.)

11. So quit trying to make it so hard! Take it easy! Just rest in the Lord. He's meek & lowly like a little child, & that's the way He wants you to be. Little children don't try to get into the big complications of huge issues, they just interpret everything down on their own level, so to them, everything is simple & easy, & they don't try too hard. When they try to reach for the doorknobs that are too high, they always get in trouble. Praise the Lord? Amen? Thank You Jesus!

12. See, it all boils down to the same simple solution: Take it easy! Don't work too hard. Don't try to do more than you can. Don't try to be more than you are. Stay humble & lowly, & then you'll find rest to your soul. Keep looking to the Lord—the Light—& His burden is light! "Cast your burden on the Lord & He shall sustain thee," & "bear ye one another's burdens" & don't push others to work too hard or do too much or carry too big a load. (Psa.55:22; Gal.6:2.) (Maria: For our Family, that's pretty important.) And don't you try to carry too much of their load. Share the loads! If you're strong enough, you can help share theirs; & if they're strong enough, they can help share yours. I think that's the way Paul meant it when he said, "Bear ye one another's burdens & so fulfil the Law of Love." Praise the Lord! Thank You Lord! Just don't try to carry more than you can. Amen? (Maria: Amen!) Am I getting an amen out of you? (Maria: Yes, Sir!) Praise the Lord! Thank You Lord! I love you! (Maria: I love you too!)

13. It's all so simple! See, if I go slower & don't try to swallow too fast, my food goes down fine. If I don't try to exceed my capacity by taking too heavy a load, then it goes down slowly & okay. It's all so simple! I was really trying to force it down last night, but when I finally gave up & quit trying so hard, beyond my capacity, then things worked out okay & I quit spitting up & went to sleep. Thank the Lord! The Lord knows how much I need & He never gives me more than I can bear. I just tried too hard, & that doesn't work. But when I just do things at His speed & what He knows is my capacity, then everything works out all right.

14. I've got a fairly regular schedule. I work just so long on all my paperwork, & then I just quit! But usually I've got most of it done by that time, thank the Lord‚ & then I'm able to have time for a little get-out & a little fellowship with others & relax a little‚ & come back & rest. Praise the Lord! I just try not to overdo‚ & the way to try not to overdo is to quit trying to do too much. Do what you can & just quit & take it easy, relax‚ & go to the Lord‚ for He is meek & lowly & you'll have rest. "For His yoke is easy & His burden is light." It's just that simple! Praise the Lord!

15. I didn't expect to get a big lesson out of that, but my eyes just fell on that verse. My wall is covered with verses‚ & when my eyes fell on that verse, I was thinking of you. Those verses actually, because it's three verses, Matthew 11:28, 29 & 30. The only trouble I have with you is making you slow down & not overdo. The Lord said, "Come ye apart & rest a while" (Mark 6:31), & you've got to get apart from it or you won't rest. You've got to stop climbing the mountain for a little while & come apart & sit down & rest, & just listen to the Lord.

16. It just comes, it just wells up, praise the Lord! I think some of my simplest messages have been some of my best.—The Lord's best. Look how simple the Lord makes them. Nearly all these verses are very simple verses. Most of the language of the Bible is very simple, especially the Words of Jesus. Now if you want to get into deep, complicated theology‚ then go to Paul, but frankly, I prefer the Words of Jesus. Of course, if you ever have any deep, complicated theological problems, Paul is the one who goes into those details & solves them for you. But most of my problems are not that deep. It only takes a few little verses like Matthew 11:28, 29 & 30 to solve nearly all of them. Praise the Lord!

17. The Lord really knew how to put it simply. You'll find that in almost all He said. Even in answering the complicated questions of His critics He gave them simple answers. Sometimes His answers were so simple they couldn't understand them‚ because they were high theologians. That's why they can't always understand us.—We're too shallow for them. They're dragging on the bottom. They have to get out in the deep water to be happy.

18. Me, I just sort of wade around in the shallows! It's so much easier, & I can see so much better. I can see the bottom. And I find a lot of very interesting things in those simple little shallows, Praise the Lord! When you're wading along the sea shore you find a lot more stuff than you can see when you're out in the deep. Of course, I must admit that there are bigger, heavier matters out in the deep that some people like to get into, but I guess I'm pretty simple-minded. I like the simple things, the easy things. Maybe it's because I'm lazy!

19. I never did go in for weight-lifting, but I liked to run & climb & be free! I didn't like weights, they're too binding. I felt too tied down. I liked to be free! I liked to be like the birds & soar! They go a lot higher & they can just soar along on the breeze sometimes without even batting their wings. That's what I like, to leave the Earth behind me & soar up into the sky! It's so much simpler than being encumbered with too many weights & the "sins that so easily beset us."—Heb.12:1. I like to get away from it all & fly & soar! I love to watch the birds, & have ever since I was a little boy.

20. I loved to climb & get away from it all! It's so much simpler from a distance. You see it like God sees it then. (Maria: Well, you do it in the Spirit now, which is what most of our people have to do. They can't usually go running off climbing mountains, but they do it in the Spirit.) I mean it as an illustration. We can't go flying off like a bird either. (Maria: But you can in the Spirit.) Yes, & that makes it so much more simple.

21. In the Spirit you can leave the body behind you! Like my poem, "In the Spirit, in the Spirit!" Oh, the Lord's given me such funny things! Nearly all those poems were free & light, like "Spirit Tree" & "Don Quixote," really childish little things. (See MLs 194 & 198.) Even the little kids enjoy them. Do they ever read those little poems any more? If they want to have fun, they should read those poems! Read something light if your appetite isn't for something heavy. The Lord gives you a great wide variety. You don't always have to delve into the deeps. Play around in the shallows! Have fun, like little children wading, being thrilled over every little discovery right on the surface. Play! Have fun! Keep it simple! Don't try to be too deep, or you may drown!

—Do you?

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family