Category: Pearls of Revelation

As I sat in Wednesday prayer this past week, the speaker was talking about how we all have trials and tribulations, how we all get weary in the midst of these seasons of hardship.  As is usual, the speaker began to reference Matthew 11:30,

“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

         

When I think of this verse, I immediately think back to the day that Jesus Christ took my burdens off my shoulders: depression, paranoia, anger, jealousy, exhaustion beyond words, deception about my identity, and bondage to a life not worth living.  His promise in this verse spoke to me.

I murmured, “You want to take this [my life] over, Jesus?  You can have it.  It’s not worth anything; in fact, everything I touch is a mess. You want ‘take the wheel’ – go ahead”…

“Cast all your burdens on Me, and receive the rest I have for you,” He said.

I took up His offer and was saved that day, and I have experienced first-hand over the past 6 years the beautiful rest and joy that emerges from knowing Him and surrendering to Him, even and especially in the midst of trial and tribulation.  When I am weary, I remind myself that His yoke is easy and His burden is light.  As St. Augustine once said, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.”

And so back to this past Wednesday.  As I sat and listened to the speaker, the Lord made me smile as He imparted revelation to me about this verse.  Instead of a perspective of the yoke and burdens I carry, the perspective changed, and I saw Jesus sitting on His throne, seeing, hearing, knowing and interceding for all the sins and fears of the world (past, present, and future).

If you have ever seen the movie Bruce Almighty, perhaps you are familiar with the scene where all the prayer emails multiply faster than he can read the subject lines, or him hearing one pleading voice, then three, then a thousand.  I instantly thought, “Oh Lord, what a burden You carry for all of us…it’s never-ending.”

The Lord just smiled and said, “No.  My yoke [My submission to My task of unceasing intercession for the world] is easy, and My burden [the load of the world, past, present, and future] is light. My Love for you is never-ending.”

“How can that be??  I mean, how do You bear it all Lord?” I smiled and asked.

“I have already overcome all burdens; I am the Lord.  My greatest moment of ‘burden’ was carrying the cross to Golgotha, being separated from the Father, being the ultimate sacrifice, and even that was My heart’s delight, for the joy [you, and her, and him, and them, and the freedom I offer you all] set before Me. I receive the billions and billions and billions of requests for peace in the storm, forgiveness of sin, deliverance, and it is not a burden…My yoke is easy because I have already conquered the grave; I no longer carry the same load as the cross – it [the burden of the cross] is finished.  Those burdens of worry and fear and sin are ones you were never meant to carry. Let Me carry your burdens, Katherine. Keep your eyes focused on Me as I carry them for you.”

Lord, I thank You for Your self-control and Your strength to bear my burdens as well as those of the entire world.  Who else is worthy of praise but You!  Thank You for the reminder to lay all my burdens [worries, fears, sins] at Your throne, fix my eyes on You, and let You carry what only You were meant to carry. You are the Good, Good Shepherd that knows how to tend to His flock!

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Perhaps you read through my conversations with the Lord and think, “He didn’t really say that. He’s not involved with us at that level.  He doesn’t speak or interact with modern-day people. She’s crazy.  She makes these things up in her mind.”

To that, I can only think to reference St. Augustine once more: “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.”

 

 

 

Last spring, the Lord woke me up at 4am, and I felt prompted to peek out the window.  There was a storm with lightning and thunder, and sideways rain, and wild, furious wind that was whipping the trees around like a wet bouquet of parsley – the agaves were unmoved, but the crepe myrtles were bending almost to the ground.  I heard the Lord point out that I was safe amidst the storm (not even in it), that He woke me to witness His power and might and ability to bring such a shaking, that some plants do not move during the winds and others bend, but do not break…and then I went to sleep after an hour of watching the scene outside.

No one else had woken during the storm, and there was not a single branch or a single blossom out of place the next morning.  I shared with Daniel, the director of ADRN, and he told me to pray in the vision that God had allowed me to witness – that I, like the crepe myrtles would be so deeply rooted and flexible so as to bend under the force of the winds but not break, and not a single part of my being would be lost or shaken loose.  I was deeply rooted in Him, though I pray that one day I am like the agave, barely shaken at all.

In hindsight, I can see how the Lord spent 2016, planting roots in me…firmly…so they would not be uprooted or damaged.  

Little did I know that I too had been planting, and earlier this year, the Lord and I looked together at my solo garden, the one I had not asked His permission or counsel to plant.  Before me were three plants, all in varying states of health.  The Lord pointed to the first one and said, “Do you see this one?  It looks healthy on the surface, but its roots are rotted out.  Do you see this second one?  You didn’t need to plant this one at all.  Do you see this last one?  It’s a good plant, but you have planted it without care and it grows sideways.”  He proceeded to pull them all out, rake the dirt, and smiled again. “I will plant a new garden for you, and My garden will provide everything you need.”

Since then, the Lord has held true to His word and has replanted in me what I tried to plant myself…because I wanted it, or thought I needed it, or hurried to set it in place.  When we hear the words “spring up a well”, it’s not that we are creating the well ourselves, but rather that we are asking for the Lord to provide what we cannot of our own flesh…lack of power…lack of wisdom.

In my desire to surrender all to my Lord, each “treasure” or “effort” that is sacrificed shoots out another root that has the sole purpose of reaching toward Him, toward the Living Water.  My root system comprises of my multiple arms reaching out to Him for my multiple needs and wants.

Lord, You are the Great Provider!  Give me the grace to let You tend the garden of my heart and put in place what You know will bless me and prosper me, according to Your plans for me!  Strengthen and expand my root system, that I may always reach for You.