God’s heart is always freedom. It is never slavery, stress, or depression. Sometimes I feel we mistake the burdens of the Lord for yoke’s of slavery. Burdens, while at times may be stressful, will always bring us peace, joy, and closeness with the Father. They will be rooted in love, promise, and hope. When we look at them we will see the Lord through and through, as well as the privilege of serving and caring for that burden. Burdens from God bring life and excitement!
However, yokes are an entirely different beast. You see yokes may feel like burdens from God, but they bring desperation and fear. They make us think, “How am I ever going to do that? There is no way! I am going to be a failure!” Or thought that are on similar lines. They make us question ourselves, and there is no hope in a yoke of slavery. There is no peace. It throws us into desperation, and traps us. These yokes then become full of guilt, shame, and fear, and they ultimately become walls between us and our Father. We begin to look at them, and we see disobedience, and we think we are unworthy to approach. This leads to separation for Dad and ultimately leads to death.
Yokes sometimes are unnecessary things that we put on our plates. However, they can also be godly burdens that we attempt to care for through our own means, instead of walking in the Spirit and provision of the Lord. So, instead of the burdens that God puts on our hearts breading joy, peace, and hope like the Lord intended, and instead of them giving us life like God designed them to they bring us death. Satan deceives us and makes us think they are just something else we have to do, and he makes them yokes. They are another thing on our already booked out to-do list, and we get overwhelmed. And this is because we fail to see that these burdens were designed by God for us to do with Him, and that they were not meant to be another task to busy our day. Or another thing we have to give our money to. Rather God meant for them to be something that we did and financed with and through our Him. They were always to build relationship between Dad and His kids.
The reality is that we are not alone. We are never called to do something by ourselves even if we are the only person around. God is always with us, stirring up His saints and angels along with Himself to come to our aid. His Spirit is always there so that we can walk in Him, and be lifted to heights we never thought possible. If we can remember that God is always there to talk to and provide a way I believe burdens will never become yokes, and we will never take on a yoke that we were not meant to. The reason being is that we will be in constant communication with God, and we will only do what He calls us to, and then He will intervene for whatever we need.
This truth, relationship with God, is where the joy of giving and serving lies. Without this relationship with Dad the question will always be, “How much is enough? How much do I need to give?” There will be this constant yoke of, “Am I giving enough? Am I serving enough?” And it will rob us of the joy God intended.
It is so faithful to know that God is faithful to speak and guide His kids. When we are talking with the Lord, and asking Him, “How much should I give or serve?” God is faithful to speak to us. He tells us exactly where and how much to give and serve, and we see life and blessing come from that obedience. He will even stretch us, and we will give in amounts and serve in ways that we never thought possible. We will begin to look for places to give and serve, because the joy of giving will infiltrate our heats as we see that God is faithful to provide everywhere He calls us to give and go.
Then with our eyes fixed on the Father we will stop asking, “How much is enough?” in fear that we will not be provided for. But in the security of our Fathers arms who is faithful to provide, and with us knowing that we are completely taken care of we will begin to ask, “Dad, can I give to them? Can I serve them? Please make a way. I so desperately want to help them” And the Father will delight to pour blessing into us, because he knows we will fulfill His original plan with Abraham. He will know that through blessing us we will bless the nations!
No, we do not give and serve; so that we can get more. That is not what I am saying. Rather, we give and serve because we know that we are secure in our Father’s arms, and there is no fear of lack. We freely give and serve, because we have been freely given too. We realize that there is life and joy in giving and serving, and so we give and serve because we have hope in something out of this world. Giving and serving were always meant to be rooted in hope and joy, and never in obligation and necessity, which leads to slavery. Rather as freed men and women we give our time, resources, and money to celebrate our freedom in the Lord! Giving is a celebration that is meant to be full of joy.
This is a lesson that the Lord has been teaching me, and it has been slow and hard, but it has been so good! In fact, I feel that I need to apologize and ask for forgiveness from some of you. In some of my letters I have unfairly put a yoke on you to help make a way for me to do what God has called me to. I unintentionally put some of you in slavery thinking if you did not give I would not be taken care of. You are giving because you think you need to in order for me to stay in the field. I want you to know that God is completely faithful to make a way for me, and He will provide. I want to encourage some of you that if you are giving out of necessity please stop giving to me. The only reason I want any of you to give is because you have heard a voice from the Lord saying I want you to invest in Matt and what he is doing. Investing in me should bring you life and joy. You should receive pleasure because you know you are allowing thousands of kids to come to the Lord with every campaign that we do. Giving should cause you to celebrate. It should be something you are doing with Dad!
I pray blessing beyond blessing for everyone who reads this letter. Through you God is going to bless the nations and the ends of the earth. For you are secure in the Father’s arms, and that hope has more power than anything on earth! Praise God ! Thank you for all of your prayers and support!
Matt
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