Are You A Do-It-Yourself-er?

“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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” -Matthew 11:28-30

All of us encounter Jesus with a certain amount of baggage from our past – false ways of thinking that to a great degree determine our receptiveness to the good news. For those Jesus was ministering to, their baggage was that of pharisaical thinking. “If I can just keep all these rules, I’ll be holy. If I can just memorize and live every commandment in the law, God will love me.” The Pharisees and Sadducees had created a generation of Jewish “do-it-yourselfers.” Their religion was one of strict adherence to a moral code passed down (and added onto) for centuries.

Jesus knew that rule-keeping earns no favor with God and command-obeying grants us no merit before His throne. These are important facets of a life of true faith in Christ, but in and of themselves they are powerless to save us. So Jesus offered a new solution… just come to Jesus. Rest. Lay down your burdens at the cross. Don’t misunderstand, rest and laziness are opposites. Jesus didn’t say we would never have to work toward holiness, He simply clarified that working toward holiness earns absolutely no ground at the judgment.

When Angie and I gave ourselves to God’s calling on our lives to move to Bentonville, Arkansas, a huge burden was lifted from our shoulders. We had felt that God was leading us to a change, but we had spent a couple of months searching for His specific will for our future and waiting for Him to open the right door. When we finally saw clearly where He wanted us to go, and we gave ourselves to it, we felt an immediate peace in our souls about the matter. Our ministry has not ended, our work has not ceased, but a burden was lifted that we might continue our ministry elsewhere in the freedom of living in God’s will.

When we’re saved, the burden of being a do-it-yourselfer is lifted because we realized Jesus did it Himself on the cross on our behalf. Our work continues, our striving for holiness never ceases. Now, however, we strive for perfection without the burden of trying to earn the favor of God. Now we grow freely under God’s ministry of grace in our lives. In short, we are now free to grow! Are you a do-it-yourselfer in spiritual matters? Why not trust Jesus to lift the load so you can live freely for Him? Remember that “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)