28 Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 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.
30 For my yoke is easy, and
my burden is light.
This scripture has so many deeper messages. Let’s break it
down:
1)
Come unto
me. Requires action. Requires us to be humble and to live our lives in
accordance with His will and teachings so that we are worthy of His Spirit.
2)
All ye
that labour. The first line sets it up for all people who are working/laboring in the Lord’s Kingdom or simply life, to the best of our ability, doing what
we can to keep His commandments and do His will.
3)
And are
heavy laden. This is the same group of people as group 2, but more
specifically those people who are having a hard time dealing with the stresses
of laboring. Those who are tired of working, which happens to all of us because
we are human. We just need to take a step back and remember the Lord so that…
4)
[He] will
give you rest. This also requires a little action on our part. He will give
us rest, but we have to allow it and accept it. It goes back to #1, we have to come unto Him.
Not just pray and seek Him, but give Him our labours and burdens. Offer them up
to Him. Allow the enabling and strengthening power of the atonement to work in us.
5)
Take my
yoke upon you. A yoke is equally set so that two
oxen have an equal share of the load. Carrying the Lord’s burden implies that we will give Him our load.
Basically we will switch places, if you will. We will carry His and He will
carry ours.
6)
And learn
of me. As we learn of the Lord, we will learn how to be like Him. We will
gain a greater relationship with Him. It will be easier for us to give Him our
burdens/yoke. We will also learn how He served and how we must serve (see #9).
7)
For I am
meek and lowly in heart. As we learn of Him, we will learn how to be meek
and lowly in heart. These are gifts that will help us and are essential for us
to serve His children. To forget ourselves and go to work.
8)
And ye
shall find rest in me. Again, he tells us the previous facts as how-to’s to
find rest. By being meek and lowly of heart (broken heart and contrite spirit),
we become more like Heavenly Father, we turn to Him more, we rely on Him more fully and
forget ourselves, we have a greater perspective of His plan and it will help us
to accept the rest we so desperately want and that He is so willing to give us.
9)
For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light. Basically, as we do His work, serve His children, focus on the needs and desires of others, our own burden’s will
not be felt. We will not realize they are there. (see Mosiah 24:15) The Lord will help us in
whatever it is we are struggling with and we will be stronger to withstand the
temptations of Satan and our own weaknesses.
