My Yoke Is Easy, My Burden Is LIght

When Jesus said, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light,”1 he was offering to join with us and help carry our heavy load. Jesus does not make extraordinary demands for us to step into his yoke; “My yoke is easy,” he said. Once we are yoked together, our burden becomes his; suddenly it feels light.
God programmed the experience of life to be one of continual lack. Our resources and abilities seldom equal what is required to heft our burdens. As we struggle to cope and progress, we find ourselves in the constant need of seeking help from someone who has greater strength and ability. Try as we might, we cannot change life’s program. But once we admit that we will never have enough and that we need constant help, we will be in a better position to come to Jesus and draw strength from a Resource that never diminishes.
The Great Discovery
One of the great discoveries of life is that God can take care of us. Here are two examples:
Years after the Israelites had wandered in the wilderness, the prophet Nehemiah offered a prayer of thanksgiving, remembering how God had easily yoked with his people and shouldered their burdens:
Thou in thy manifold mercies forsookest them not in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to shew them light, and the way wherein they should go. Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, [so that] they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.2
The Lord never forsook them; he was with them both day and night; he instructed them and provided manna and water to sustain them so that they never lacked anything. Amazingly, neither their clothing nor their shoes wore out during those 40 years! Truly, the Lord’s yoke is easy and his burden is light.
Here is another of example of “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
At the end of Jesus’ life, just before he entered Gethsemane, he reminded his apostles of the time when they went out to teach the people with neither purse nor scrip. Then Jesus asked them: “When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye any thing? And they said, Nothing.”3 They lacked nothing!
Here, then, is the solution for those who of us lack:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.4
We could rephrase this scripture by replacing the word “wisdom” with “anything.”
If any of you lack anything, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth [chastises] not; and it [the blessing] shall be given him.
Notice the inclusive language: anything,” “any of you,” and “all men.” Now notice the word “liberally,” meaning abundantly. Clearly, the Lord is anxious to freely take care of our needs, if we will ask him. If we will sincerely request that he yoke with us and help to carry our burden, he will neither chastise us nor turn us away; rather he will gladly give us the blessing we seek.


Grace and the Lord’s Yoke
One of the greatest gifts that Jesus offers us is his grace: his ability to add to our strength to make us equal to any challenge. Grace is that divine power which enables us to become more than we are and do more than we could if we were left to ourselves. But by yoking with Jesus, we become as strong as our Partner.
A Divine Formula
We can no more explain grace than we can understand how the Lord’s yoke works. But here is how the formula works:
· Come unto Christ and ask for his help.
· Do our best to carry the load.
· He will make up the difference.
A Pattern for Shifting Burdens

Jesus gave us a pattern for shifting the weight of both the burdens of sin and the difficulties of life. He said, “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.”5
Let us examine some words and phrases in these verses:
· “Labour”—a woman in labor descends into the valley of death to bring forth new life. To survive the labour she needs comfort and encouragement. Jesus is offering us his comfort and encouragement.
· “I will give you rest.” The word rest has at least two meanings: “I will share your load” and “If you will come unto me, I will give you eternal life.”
· “Take my yoke upon you” means “Because I am the Savior I am already wearing a yoke. I am going your way and have a place open in my yoke if you want to take it.”
· “Learn of me” means “I am inviting you to get to know me. We are family; we are friends. Family and friends learn about each other. As we travel along, yoked together, you will get to know me better.”
· “I am meek [patient, humble, gentle, submissive to your requests] and lowly in heart [not proud]” means “I want you to learn about me: I am always willing to help, and I am harmless.”
· “Ye shall find rest” – Our journey together ends with the great promise of eternal life.
· “My yoke is easy and my burden is light” means “You are going to notice a marked difference in the weight of your load.”
In the scripture, four verbs and their phrases describe how we can lighten our burdens when we easily yoke ourselves to Jesus:
· Come unto me.
· Take my yoke upon you; it is easy.
· Learn of me.
· Find rest.
1) Come to the Savior
Don't try to see how long you can tough it out. Don't drive yourself into spiritual and mental exhaustion by trying to carry the burden alone. Come to the Savior—ALL of you “that labour and are heavy-laden.”
2) "Take my yoke upon you"
Here are two examples of people’s burdens made light by their taking upon them the easy yoke of Jesus Christ:
· Moses’ people were punished. A plague of poisonous serpents bit all of Moses’ people for their disobedience to God. Moses created a brazen serpent and raised it on a pole, symbolizing the Savior’s being lifted upon the cross, and invited the people to simply look upon the serpent and be healed. But many of the people perished because they would not look; the solution was too easy and therefore too unbelievable. The prophet, Nephi, explained, “The labor which they had to perform was to look; and because of the simpleness of the way, or the easiness of it, there were many who perished.”6
· Referring to this event, the Book of Mormon prophet, Alma, taught his son: “For behold, it is…easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss…. O my son, do not let us be slothful because of the easiness of the way; for so was it with our fathers; for so was it prepared for them, that if they would look they might live; even so it is with us. The way is prepared, and if we will look [unto Christ] we may live forever.”7
Clearly, the burdens of sin and life are hard, but yoking ourselves to Christ is easy.
The Easy Yoke of Jesus Christ
President Howard W. Hunter described Jesus’ easy yoke:
In Biblical times, the yoke was a device of great assistance to those who tilled the field. It allowed the strength of a second animal to linked and coupled with the strength of a single animal, sharing and reducing the heavy labor of the plow or wagon. A burden that was overwhelming or perhaps impossible for one could be equitably and comfortably borne by two bound together with a common yoke….
Why face life's burdens alone, Christ asks, or why face them with temporal support that will quickly falter. To the heavy laden it is Christ's yoke, it is the power and peace of standing side by side with a God that will provide the support , balance, and strength to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here in the hardpan field of mortality.8
What is Christ’s ‘easy yoke’?
Covenants, such as the baptismal covenant, are the easy yoke of Jesus Christ. A covenant is made by two people promising each other: “I promise you and you promise me.” By mutual promises, the two parties are bound (yoked) together.
When we keep our part of a covenant, Jesus keeps his part. And his part always includes removing the burden of our sins and helping us to carry the weight of our problems. Then our burden becomes light and manageable.
Examples of Jesus Making Our Burdens Light:
· The Paralytic Man. The friends of a paralytic man broke through the roof a house to lower a sick man and his bed to Jesus for healing. Their faith was rewarded by the Savior’s healing the man and lifting his burden. Significantly, after the man was healed, Jesus directed him to carry home his bed. The healed man gladly obliged; the bed weighed much less than the infirmity that the Savior had removed from him. Now his burden was light.9
· Alma. The Book of Mormon prophet, Alma, was once the vilest of sinners. When he came face to face with his own rebellion, he repented mightily and the Lord forgave him. Thereafter, he devoted himself to the Lord’s work, which required a lifetime of sacrifice and service. But his sacrifice burdened him much less than the burden of sin that he had carried alone.
Examples of Christ’s Easy Yoke--“We’re in this together”
Peter’s life provides two significant examples of the Lord’s standing with us and absorbing our mistakes when we are yoked to him.
When tax collectors asked Peter if Jesus paid tribute, Peter erroneously answered yes. Later, Jesus corrected him, but because they were yoked together, Jesus provided a solution “lest we should offend them.” Notice that Jesus includes himself in the solution. Peter’s burden was to go out and obtain the tribute money, but Jesus’ part was to provide the miracle by which that happened. When Peter paid the tribute money, Jesus said it would be “for me and thee.” Why? Because Peter and Jesus were yoked together; they were carrying this burden together. Jesus didn’t abandon Peter to suffer the consequences alone.10
Later, Peter made another mistake that the Savior rectified. When Judas betrayed the Savior, Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant. Again, because Jesus and Peter were yoked together, Peter’s actions impacted Jesus. Therefore, Jesus told Peter to put away his sword, and quickly he healed the servant’s ear, repairing Peter’s mistake.11 When we are yoked with the Savior, he assumes and covers our mistakes.
3) "Learn of me"
The lessons we must learn about Jesus are lessons that we can only learn after we have taken upon us his yoke and traveled with him. What will we learn? That he is kind, just, consistent, non-discriminating, all-knowledgeable, all-powerful, and filled with perfect love.
But we do not have to learn everything about him before he manifests his power in our lives. An apostle, Boyd K. Packer, said, "You need not know everything before the power of the atonement will work for you. Have faith in Christ; it begins to work the day you ask."12
4) Find Rest Unto Your Souls
Consider what these people found or discovered when they decided to yoke themselves to the Lord and allow him to help carry their burdens:
· Job. This prophet experienced terrible trials, but the Lord remained constantly yoked to him and carried his burdens. During the process, Job learned lessons about the Lord that he could not have learned otherwise, and in the end the Lord appeared to him.

Then Job answered the LORD, and said, I know that thou canst do everything [you have all power], and that no thought can be withholden from thee [you know everything]…therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not [I thought I knew you, but what I have learned being yoked to you is too wonderful for me to describe]…I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.13
In other words, Job came to know the Lord more by being yoked to him than he ever could have otherwise. Finally, he came to know him in the ultimate sense: Job saw him and found rest to his soul.
· Abraham. After Abraham had nearly lost his life to the wicked priest of Elkenah, he yoked himself to the Lord and escaped the land of Ur with his wife and kindred. Then in the land of Haran, his journey with the Lord resulted in the Lord’s appearing unto him and giving him great promises. When the vision ended, Abraham said in his heart, “Thy servant has sought thee earnestly; now I have found thee.”14 Abraham’s resolve to yoke himself to the Lord resulted in his finding the Lord, meaning knowing and seeing the Lord.
If we will submit to be easily yoked to Christ and allow him to help shoulder our burdens, we will receive in return his guarantee of support and the assurance that we will come to know him intimately.
Alma’s Testimony of Jesus’ Easy Yoke
Every person who tests the Savior will eventually stand as a witness that Jesus Christ indeed has an easy yoke, that he will lighten the heaviest of burdens, and that he will take care of us. The prophet Alma gave the following testimony, after having lived a life of sacrifice and service, which had caused him relentless and unbearable persecution:
I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me from prison, and from bonds, and from death; yea, and I do put my trust in him, and he will still deliver me.15
Alma’s testimony could be echoed by every soul who hearkens to the Savior’s invitation: “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.”16
Author’s Note
To receive a sample of my new 5-book series, The Three Pillars of Zion, Click here.
(I wish to thank Ted Gibbons for sharing his thoughts on this article.)
1 Matthew 11:30.
2 Nehemiah 9:18-21.
3 Luke 22:35.
4 James 1:5.
5 Matthew 11:28-30.
6 1 Nephi 17:41.
7 Alma 37:44,46.
8 Hunter, Conference Report, October 1990, 20.
9 Mark 2:2-12.
10 Matthew 17:24-27.
11 Matthew 26:51.
12 Packer, “Washed Clean,” Ensign, May 1997, 9.
13 Job 42:1-3, 4-5.
14 Abraham 2:12.
15 Alma 36:27.
16 Matthew 11:28-30
Not Good Enough
By M. Catherine Thomas
In previous columns we have spoken of our premortal brilliance and freedom and love as spirit personages in the world before. Then our innocent, sensitive spirit descends to earth and becomes a human being; and for most of us, the thing that suffers most is our appreciation of our own self.
It seems as though most of us suffer here from some version of “not being good enough” to one degree or another; some people shape their whole life out of that perception. This feeling of self-doubt becomes the lens by which we see and hear everything that happens in our life, distorting many important truths, while causing us to do many artificial things -- to be untrue to ourself, to try to manage our image in others’ eyes, to do things that aren’t right for us, to doubt love when it is genuinely offered, to keep others at a distance; to devalue our own unique contributions; to shrink back when stepping forward would make a difference. This darkened view of our self limits our experience of joy and freedom to be and to do in this life. We disempower ourselves – but it is all coming from one source: our own thinking. We are the ones who deny ourselves permission to find ourselves worthwhile, lovable, capable, creators of a powerful life.
Last night I spoke at a Relief Society meeting on spiritual comfort. Afterwards a long-time friend put her head on my shoulder and said, “I couldn’t feel what you were talking about. I’m in a hole; I’m just no good. I’m lost and I don’t know what to do.” The thinking she was used to listening to walled out the truths that might have set her free. Another man wrote yesterday and said, “I tend to be poor at receiving love from others. I’m not sure if it’s a low self-worth thing, or what, but it has prevented me from deep and meaningful relationships with everyone, including the Lord.”
While it is true that many of us grow up in situations where we thought we heard and saw that we weren’t worth much, today these old worn-out programs do not serve us. How to shake them off and be who we really are? I myself have noticed my wet hands and anxious stomach and have searched for the key to getting free. A quiet voice whispers: “You haven’t believed Me.”
Divine voices are speaking all around us, but our hearing doesn’t hear and our seeing doesn’t see. Until finally it does. In a conversation a while back, an honest friend looked into my face and said, “So, the Atonement applies to sins but doesn’t apply to putting yourself down? How could there be a worse sin than that?” For some miraculous reason I finally heard that. I finally saw that my problem had nothing to do with my actual self worth – which had never been on trial -- but with the kind of thinking, judging, and failing to forgive myself that I had carried around with me my whole life and which had spilled over into everything I experienced.
I’m learning that two things have to happen: 1) we have to become aware of all the subtle and overt ways that we judge ourself and others (both of these coming from the same faulty thinking); 2) we have to replace the tired old tapes with a new kind of thinking and energy, a truer kind – a thinking we listen and listen and listen to while we let all the old falsehoods fall away, as we unveil our true self and discover the life we will be led to live.
The difficulty here is that the experience of liberation exceeds the written description. To experience the difference between that collapsed feeling inside and the heightened energy of “I have a work to do that matters” is like night and day – and bigger than the words. Not only that, but the sense of self shifts. The focus is no longer on the doer but on the thing to be done, an awareness of the energy driving it, and a sense of Cause.
I ask, so what is my true self and how have I been betraying it? What, indeed, is the self? We remember the Savior’s words: “I was in the beginning with the Father .… Ye were also in the beginning with the Father; that which is Spirit, even the Spirit of truth. . . . I am the Spirit of truth. . . . [You are] intelligence, or the light of truth . . . [which light/intelligence] is not created or made. . . . [and] independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself” (D&C 93). I get from this that the Savior is saying, “I am the Spirit of Truth and you are the Spirit of truth, the light of truth, intelligence – independent and free. You are made out of the same material that I am and are free to become as I am.” What I finally see is that He took that material and made something powerful out of it, and you and I can too.
But we BLOCK that perception, we betray ourselves, because we’ve become so addicted to inner disturbance, judgment, and lack of forgiveness that we can’t feel our own reality or the reality of His love and closeness to us. We cling, not to Him, but to our old stories.
But if we were to become as aggressive and disciplined with our thinking of the thoughts that empower us as we have been in berating ourselves, our lives would absolutely change. For example, we could generate new energy inside with: I am the Spirit of Truth, I am Christ’s, I am connected to divine powers and I get to take responsibility to stop causing myself damage and, instead, courageously to live a powerful life full of goodness and contribution. We get to empower ourselves with our most compelling ideas. Ideas are spirit. This is practice for divinity.
The keys, again, are heightening awareness of our moment-to-moment thinking and then forgiveness and then reversal when we catch ourselves listening to the same old programs. Being the Spirit of Truth, we cannot tolerate anything that is not truth because it sets up immediate conflict and robs us of power in our soul. Most of us are still carrying around the conflict we’ve generated with all our little lies for love and approval, for copping out, for not showing up. Truth provokes us to look at all the artificial things we do and prompts us – at any cost -- to get real. Let us then feed on truth and light: “He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things” (D&C 93:28) – these are the stuff of our being. And when this awareness collapses, we can always trace back in our minds to find the disempowering thought – then forgive it and reverse it.
Consider this possibility: that it is the fear of being divinely transformed, of being divine that holds us back. Our deepest fear may not be that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. One author has suggested that it is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us, so that we may tend to retreat into our self-made darkness because we’re fearful to express and manifest divinity. We may at some level ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, gifted, and fabulous?
Yet, she points out, our “playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around [us]. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us”; and as we let [that] light shine, we give others permission to do the same.1

There is something important in our heart to do. Let us clean up our thinking and expand into the divine.
Windhorse
By M. Catherine Thomas
Our feeling good in this life depends on our relationship to our own innate goodness.
In previous columns we considered the true nature of our essential self, that it is formed of the spirit of Light and Truth (see D&C 93). This being so, our individual spirit may be understood better as a form of energy. And being a form of energy, the self is not a static organism but is, rather, fluid, flowing, and expandable, capacitated to develop through stage after stage as it accepts more and more light: "He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things" (D&C 93:28); and, “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24). Knowing our true nature and the bases upon which we’re constructed can help us understand how to flourish, designed as we are to feed upon the energies of Light and Truth.
Even though our mind may look at our self and see solidity and limitation, we want to open our vision to the reality that our self is a work in progress and deeply imbued with unexplored goodness. One of the things we can observe as we look deeply into ourself is that we have an intimate relationship to this inner, dynamic quality of goodness, because when this energy stops flowing, we feel stuck. And we don’t know what the matter is because we don’t understand the true origin of happiness. But the reason that our top stops spinning is that we have lost confidence in our goodness and have neglected to express its power.
Because instead of confidence in goodness, we have shifted to a different confidence, and thus a different energy; for example, we have taken up trusting in jealousy, blame, greed, lust, irritation, impatience, criticism of self or others, retaliation, despair, laziness, or carelessness. Thus we engender dissatisfaction and mindless activity. And then when we don’t understand why our mind feels bewildered and unstable, we search for something outside ourself to blame.
In other words, what has happened is that we have unwittingly chosen to live against the spirit of Truth and Light. We have forgotten the Law of our own being which is Goodness and Love. And, as our spirit is the guardian of these energies, we deal with uncomfortable consequences and not feeling “good” when we act in ways our spirit does not approve of. The key to comfort, progress, and liberation is a return to our true being; that is, an indispensable aspect of self-comfort lies in our relationship to the energy of our innate goodness.
It may be that we must change our mental habits and that we must take responsibility to choose more effective kinds of energy to accomplish the true purposes of our life. For example, instead of condemnation, we can allow the energy of compassion to shape our thoughts and actions; and, instead of continually trying to make ourself happy, we can ponder on the things that would help those around us -- even though this may seem, in our current state, counterintuitive.
To acquire this new perspective, this larger mind, we need a mental reset. We can do this by creating a space in our mind where new thoughts and actions can bloom. This space is created as we sit quietly, allowing our mind to rest at its neutral point, entering our non-seeking, non-grasping mind. This mind is wonderfully quiet and peaceful. Here we think of what we could be offering to our world, small or great. We have so many precious gifts -- gifts of understanding, acceptance, maybe even one or two bright ideas. Our awareness begins to expand beyond the small mind we’ve been living in, and a new, pleasing energy begins to arise.
The Tibetans call this energy “Windhorse,” which is the energy of innate goodness. The rider who mounts Windhorse rides the power of compassion, discernment, discipline, wise decisions, and intelligence. No longer out of control, he begins to rule his world wisely and benevolently. This Windhorse energy is a like a magnetic force field that in its arising carries with it the energies of enthusiasm, new ideas, new openness, new possibilities, new inspiration. It seems to generate visceral heat.
Windhorse can be raised at will. And each of us can ride Windhorse. With it we envision plans for experiencing a new kind of success. We realize that every aspect of our life, our loved ones, our work, and our busy doings can be used to nurture new wisdom and compassion and renewed confidence in our innate goodness. Our vision becomes more cosmic as we consider acting, not for ourself, but for all beings: “Let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God. . . . The Holy Ghost shall be thy constant companion, and thy scepter an unchanging scepter of righteousness and truth; and thy dominion shall be an everlasting dominion, and without compulsory means it shall flow unto thee forever and ever” (D&C 121:45-46). This is the power of kings and queens.
We realize that our other way of living was sapping our strength, but with this new energy of clarity and strength and blessing, life takes on new meaning. We thank the voice of Windhorse for whispering to us as the energy of anger or vengeance tries to arise: “You don’t have to do this.” Thus we reclaim our power to make virtuous choices. We feel how “wickedness never was happiness” (Alma 41:10). There is only one hope for complete happiness and for feeling “good enough” and that rests in our taking steps along the path of comprehensive virtue, cultivating our inner goodness.
“Windhorse” is easy to translate into our thought-world. It is the very Light and Power of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself – it is the energy He uses to shed grace in its many forms into a darkened world. We too can follow Him, traveling His path from grace to grace, grasping His extended hand.
From this energy we acquire a new discernment about what “virtue” is as it reaches out to make the world better, wherever, however, it can. Then a new energy is released into our life that removes many obstacles and attracts the things we need. We resonate with the energy of Captain Moroni who could shake the powers of hell.
We are the ones ultimately responsible for our own happiness and for generating the energy that fuels it.
When we see how life works and how specific energies can be chosen to determine our experience, we learn that we can “weave the tapestry of happiness every day with the needle and thread of our own mind.”