In Jeremiah 27:12 we read:
I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
(Jeremiah 27:12 KJV)
Even though this verse is talking about the king of Babylon, I’d like to point out that the part where it says “bring your necks under the yoke of the king…” still has a significant, direct application for us as Christians.
But how, though?
The True King’s Yoke
We read of the yoke we as Christians are called to place ourselves under in Matthew 11:28-29.
It says:
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
(Matthew 11:28-29)
When we bring our “necks” under the yoke of Christ in complete surrender to Christ, our true King, we will find “REST” for our souls.
A Personal Blessing For Me
God has been teaching me to apply this lesson recently in much broader ways in my life than before.
One example includes bringing and surrendering the “neck” of free time under the yoke of His will.
Or another example would be bringing the “neck” of my media/technology usage under His yoke.
Or another example includes even bringing what I read in my Bible for morning devotions under the yoke of His will; so instead of going through the motions of following my Bible reading routine, I surrender my devotional time to Him and ask Him to lead me to what He wants me to read and study.
It has been a blessing learning to surrender more things in my life to be placed under the yoke of God’s will.
Why?
Because I get to experience more of His rest in my life, and learn things that I never would have learned had I continued following my own way.
I’ll share a testimony to better illustrate what I mean by this.
Testimony
Before when I’d have free time in the evenings, I’d spend that free time watching YouTube videos.
When I recently started to surrender my free time to be under the yoke of God’s will and asking Him how HE wanted me to spend my free time, He started to slowly but surely mold my interests to different things.
So instead of spending time on YouTube, I’d find myself spending some of my evening free time self-learning a new digital art program called Krita and spending the rest of it having evening devotions.
Because of this, I’ve not only picked up a new skill (learning how to draw in Krita), but have grown so much in my walk with Christ through surrendering the wasted time I’d spend on YouTube for extra time with Him in my evening devotions.
A Prayer
Dear reader, would you like to bring the “necks” of your life, time, habits, and everything else under the yoke of Christ and His will for you today?
If so, then I wanna encourage you to just pray:
“On the other side of surrender you will find the greatest joy.”
–Leslie Ludy
Amen! Maranatha!