May 10

The world views God's commands as burdensome and hard to fulfill. In truth, they are much harder to fulfill than they think: They are, in fact, impossible to fulfill. The reason the world finds them so hard to do is that they are trying to do the impossible.

Yet 1 John 5:3 says that God's commands are not burdensome. How can this be? Which is it? Are God's commands a burden to be borne, or are they truly not burdensome as John says?

Jesus said that his burden was light and his yoke easy (Mt. 11:30). Why is it, then, that so many complain that being a follower of Jesus is such a hard task? Because they are trying to accomplish it through their own efforts instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to do it through them.

Whenever we sense that our walk with the Lord has turned hard and unsatisfying, it would be well to stop and think and examine that walk to see if we have strayed from the path Jesus set before us of being yoked to his easy yoke, where he lives his life through us, and have begun trying to pull him away from his path by our own heart's wanderings, like a wayward ox yoked to the One obedient to the Master.

Scripture for today: 1 John 5:1-5
Thought for today: God's commands to me are not burdensome.
Prayer for today: I gladly obey you, Lord, as proof that I love you.

MAY 10