God’s Help With The Flesh

Come to me all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28

February 21, 2020

Recently I listened to a message from Zac Poonen, and he said everything I desperately needed to be reminded of in the midst of my struggle.   He talked about continuing to deny yourself in addition to also coming to the person of Jesus.  He explained that coming to the person of Jesus, is more than being encouraged by a scripture. Thinking of putting these two concepts together was absolutely profound to me! Remembering this simple truth has been so amazingly refreshing to my spirit and heart.  

I realize that because I have been disregarding these two important concepts working together, I’ve been missing out on having a restful heart with some struggling friendships. 

Lately, I have only been reading scripture and being encouraged by it. As usual, I would then apply that scripture to my life by trying my best to put it into practice for my particular situation. However, I realize that at times when I would attempt to exercise the Word of God in my life,  I felt so burdened by it. I would think to myself, Why is putting the word into practice feeling so incredibly hard?!  Is God not helping me? Is there something I’m missing? I understood that I needed God’s grace, but lately I don’t think I was ever taking my burdens to Jesus.

In this challenging friendship, I would think about what the right thing is to do and knew I needed to do it unto God. I know I needed to deny myself and pick up my cross and I genuinely do desire to do so, but it’s not without a struggle.  It feels as if there is a war happening within my heart. But after hearing Zac’s message while having these recent struggles, I’m starting to comprehend that I never took the actual burden to the person of Jesus. I realize now that I was using my own strength to do the right thing and I would still feel the heavy weight of the burden on my heart.  The load was not easy to lift at all, and I certainly have not felt restful through these struggles. However, with having this recent victory over my flesh, I am reminded of the ease and rest I should have, when I’m not doing life and relationships in my own strength! I have forgotten what God’s rest feels like, and lately I have only experienced it being hard on my flesh. I’m reminded to believe His Words, ‘For my yoke is easy and My burden is light!!!’ Wow Lord!! Today, I truly feel like my soul is at rest in HIM!!!

What’s funny is that all this time, I knew I needed God’s help to bear the load. I have acknowledged to Him that I can’t do this on my own and that nothing is good in me! Even after humbling myself, I still wasn’t taking my burden to Jesus Christ, the person. I’m realizing this is something I have to do very intentionally in my heart. When I am intentional to give it to Jesus, it’s as if the Holy Spirit is in me physically lifting some heavy load off of my heart. If I don’t surrender, die to self, and give the burdens to Jesus (all three of these things), then this results in using my own strength and I don’t even realize it! I need to depend on Him not just for my circumstances, but I need to depend on Him for my heart. 

I believe that God has given me a certain amount of grace to have the willingness to do the right thing. I know that it is only Him who puts it in my heart to desire to do what is good.  Without Him encouraging my heart, I only want to do what is selfish, which is easy on my flesh.  I’m realizing that desire to do what is good and pleasing to God will only get me so far.  To do what is good, without His help will still be too heavy of a burden for me.  It continues to feel heavy because having the right desire is not the same thing as taking your burdens to Jesus the person.  Scripture says that God, through His kindness, is the one who helps us to be brought to repentance, which means it is God who put this good desire into our hearts to come to Him.  And then, it’s through Jesus that we repent and come to God The Father.  I believe that this is a similar principle;  God once again helps give us the right desires to do what pleases Him, but then we need Jesus and His spirit in order to carry it out in our lives. We need Jesus and His Spirt to perform the good works that He is leading us to. (John 14:6; Romans 2:4)

Before this revelation, I would think to myself ‘It’s not easy, but you do it anyways and you ask for grace’.  I realize this is a half-truth, because I think it still has the wrong attitude and isn’t doing it in full faith of believing that His yoke truly is easy. It’s not recognizing that the person of Jesus actually does help carry the burden on your flesh. It’s not having the faith to believe that He actually does do the heavy lifting, so that your heart can bear it! I realize that if I only have the desire to do the right thing to please God, this leads me to strive in my own strength rather than the divine strength of Jesus.

I think God is pleased with the fact that I have been striving to do the right thing and have been denying myself. However, today I feel as if He has given me the extra grace I’ve been missing.  The grace that feels the strength of His hand carrying me though.  Oh God, I don’t ever want to lose this. Please help me to have this moment always! Meaning, please help me to continue to give Jesus the burden!!