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Watch, and Give Jesus Your Burden, December 19
Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to
escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son
of man.
Luke 21:36
.
In the solemn language of this scripture, a duty is pointed out which lies in the
daily pathway of everyone, whether old or young. This is the duty of watchfulness,
and upon our faithfulness here our destiny for time and for eternity depends....
How many there are whose hearts are today aching under their load of care,
and who are thinking, Oh, if there were only someone to help me bear my burdens!
Well, there is Someone to help you bear your burdens; there is rest for you who
are heavy laden. Jesus, the great Burden-bearer, invites, “Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Here is the promise of the Master; but it is on condition. “Take my yoke upon
you,” He says, “and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall
find rest unto your souls.”
“For My yoke is grievous.” Is that what He says? No. “My yoke is easy,
and my burden is light.” The burden you are carrying which is so heavy, and
which causes such weariness and perplexity, is your own burden. You desire
to meet the world’s standard; and in your eager efforts to gratify ambitious and
worldly desires, you wound your consciences, and thus bring upon yourselves the
additional burden of remorse.
When you do not want to be distinct from the world, but desire to mix up with
it so that no difference is seen between you and the world, then you may know that
you are drunken with the cares of this life. Oh, there are so many selfish interests,
so many cords to bind us to this world! But we must keep cutting these cords, and
be in a condition of waiting for our Lord.
The world has forced itself in between our souls and God. But what right
have we to allow our hearts to become overcharged with the cares of this life?
What right have we, through our devotion to the world, to neglect the affairs of
the church and the interests of our fellow men? Why should we manufacture for
ourselves burdens and cares that Christ has not laid upon us? ...
“Watch ye therefore, and pray always.” There is great need of watchfulness,
not for our own sakes only, but also for the sake of our influence upon others. Our
influence is far-reaching.... We should so speak and so walk that the Spirit of God
may be in our hearts, and His blessing in our homes.—
The Signs of the Times,
January 7, 1886
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