The easy life?

[Faulty]

Last week, my grandmother sent my family an Easter card and she included a cardboard insert in the card that states,

My life is easy and light!​

"Come to Me, all you 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 (NKJV)​

Now, when I read this passage, it brings to my mind Hebrews 4, where we are are told of the Sabbath rest remaining for God's people, to rest from all our works, and not that now "my life is easy and light".

Does it seem to anyone else that these verses were taken from their context and applied inappropriately to support the idea that life is now easy and light?

 

[franky67]

Last week, my grandmother sent my family an Easter card and she included a cardboard insert in the card that states,

My life is easy and light!​

"Come to Me, all you 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 (NKJV)​

Now, when I read this passage, it brings to my mind Hebrews 4, where we are are told of the Sabbath rest remaining for God's people, to rest from all our works, and not that now "my life is easy and light".

Does it seem to anyone else that these verses were taken from their context and applied inappropriately to support the idea that life is now easy and light?

Compared to life before knowing Jesus as my savior, life was very difficult.
I had to cope the best I could, I had no place to lay my burdens down.

Jesus said it in the red words, He is our shepherd, how could He make it any plainer ?
A shepherd looks after the welfare of his flock, if they fall in a ditch, he pulls them our, if they get the skin crud, he puts salve on them, if a wolf gets after them, he chases it off, if they get caught in a brier patch, he lifts them out.

A shepherd wants his sheep well, free from sickness, strife, he leads them to lie down in green pastures, beside the still water, he provides for them.

He is the Good Shepherd

Before Christ, I was a lost sheep, without a shepherd, and life was hard.

 

[franky67]

bump

Compared to life before knowing Jesus as my savior, life was very difficult.
I had to cope the best I could, I had no place to lay my burdens down.

Jesus said it in the red words, He is our shepherd, how could He make it any plainer ?
A shepherd looks after the welfare of his flock, if they fall in a ditch, he pulls them our, if they get the skin crud, he puts salve on them, if a wolf gets after them, he chases it off, if they get caught in a brier patch, he lifts them out.

A shepherd wants his sheep well, free from sickness, strife, he leads them to lie down in green pastures, beside the still water, he provides for them.

He is the Good Shepherd

Before Christ, I was a lost sheep, without a shepherd, and life was hard.

 

[FoundInGrace]

Last week, my grandmother sent my family an Easter card and she included a cardboard insert in the card that states,

My life is easy and light!​

"Come to Me, all you 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 (NKJV)​

Now, when I read this passage, it brings to my mind Hebrews 4, where we are are told of the Sabbath rest remaining for God's people, to rest from all our works, and not that now "my life is easy and light".

Does it seem to anyone else that these verses were taken from their context and applied inappropriately to support the idea that life is now easy and light?

It is my understanding that the Sabbath Rest talked about in Hebrews is where we still work as God leads but it is Him that does the work.. in the sense of God carries us, works with us, strengthens us for the task: we co-labour with Him, but it is His work. That is where the rest is, it is Him working through us.
Paul talked about being poured out.. he still worked in the Kingdom with all He had but it was by God's grace that he was who he was and doing what he was doing and he knew that. Pauls life wasnt easy and light he was beaten whipped, shipwrecked etc etc but he had that Sabbath rest.

I agree those verses in Matt 11 relate to the Sabbath rest.
becoming a believer can sometimes make our lives more difficult! eg persecution, denying ourselves etc but Jesus walks with us and it is well with our souls - that is where the rest in our labours comes from.

 

[lismore]

Does it seem to anyone else that these verses were taken from their context and applied inappropriately to support the idea that life is now easy and light?

Like the Christian that wrote the hymn 'It is well with my soul!'

It was well with his soul.

 

[Faulty]

The Sabbath rest is something we are told to strive to enter into (Heb 4:11), and is likely the same prize that Paul is striving for in 1 Cor 9:27. Even the verses I quoted mention not removing our yoke, but replacing it with a new one, a better one. There is still a yoke on us, and there is still a burden we carry.

Like Franky seemed to say, and as this card teaches (on the other side), that these verses make my life easy and light, because I'm given everything, my needs, my wants, all health, and all riches, but the verses used to support this say nothing about me being given anything but a lighter burden, and a yoke is strapped to an animal to put them to work, easier work for me, but work nonetheless.