Area Presidency Message
Blessings of Embracing the Lord’s Invitation
Consider the blessings of embracing the Lord’s invitation during this Christmas season.
“Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28). These words express the desire and compassionate heart of the Savior and is His appeal for people to come to Him as a relief from their oppression. It is a call to turn from whatever they are presently depending on to Him. Considering the Savior’s earlier rebuke to the people in Chorazin and the Bethsaida for their unbelief (see Matthew 11:21), I have felt His compassion on me. This to me is a call to follow Him as a committed disciple; it is a call to completely turn my life over to Him.
To fully embrace the Lord’s invitation to come unto Him, it was necessary for me to let go of the things which are unbecoming to being Christlike. I discovered that success and finding joy lie in fully embracing the Lord’s invitation. I may not enjoy this invitation fully while living on some selected gospel principles. I needed to come unto the Lord “with full purpose of heart” so that He could “heal [me]” (3 Nephi 18:32).
This invitation is a direct call to come unto the Savior, not to a program, nor a system or an organization, but to come unto the Savior Himself. This is an intimate invitation to develop Christlike attributes. This invitation is not intended to be partial to one group or class or nationality. In Christ, God reaches out to the whole world.
I therefore reflected upon this invitation on my early days in the Church. I decided then that I would choose to follow the Savior in every way possible. Giving my all for His purpose was my very desire and continues to be so, especially as I reflect on His birth in this season.
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me” (Matthew 11:29). This is a call to discipleship and how men and women find rest. Last December 2017 while at home during our summer vacation, Naume and I were in Madziva village in Zimbabwe. We observed a neighbor plowing with a team of oxen. As I saw this team, I was somewhat amazed, for one was a huge ox and the other a very small bullock. That ox towered over the little bullock that was sharing the work with him.
I was amazed and perplexed to see a farmer trying to plow with two such unequal animals in the yoke and commented on the inequality to my mother-in-law, who was standing by. My mother-in-law pointed to the yoke and showed me the traces which were hooked to the yoke. I observed that the large ox was pulling all the weight; the little bullock was being broken into the yoke, but he was not actually pulling any weight.
My mind instinctively came to this passage of scripture where our Lord said, “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” (Matthew 11:29). In the normal yoking, the load is equally distributed between the two that are yoked together, but when we are yoked with Jesus Christ, He bears the load and we who are yoked to Him share in the joy and the accomplishment of the labor but without the burden of the yoke.
Not that the challenges or difficulties we are facing will be removed, but He will “ease the burdens which are put upon [our] shoulders, that even [we] cannot feel them upon [our] backs” (see Mosiah 24:14).
Regardless of what I may go through in life, the Lord is my Shepherd. His promise to me is real: “Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me: and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage” (Mosiah 24:13).
Just like the people who followed Alma who were in bondage to wicked oppressors, when they prayed for relief the Lord did not remove their burdens, but He eased them. The Lord in His matchless power and love strengthened them so “that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord” (Mosiah 24:15). I am convinced that the Lord heals the heavy laden.
He is consistently calling me to serve, but I work and serve in the strength which He gives. He is always there beside me pulling the weight for me, as I strive to yield my life to Him. The only time the load becomes overbearing is when I try to take over and do the pulling, or handle the load myself. It is when I look at the yoke and think it does not fit, when it is designed perfectly for me, in that it is designed to make me like Him but is also tailor-made for me, for the reason I may not know.
My invitation to all is to embrace the Savior’s invitation during this Christmas season and to make this a lifelong commitment. The Savior promised, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:30). It is tailormade for each of us and furthermore, He is always there with us to bear the burden. True, enduring happiness and success depend on fully embracing this invitation.