Really God? This is what You are saying? A Devotional on Carrying Burdens and Figuring It Out.

REALLY GOD? THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE SAYING?

A Devotional on Carrying Burdens and Figuring it Out

Pastor Calvin Cook

January 16, 2026

I preface this devotional once again with the reason for these devotionals. I write these devotionals to myself and share them to a very wide audience now. Sometimes as I write I am amazed but shouldn’t be at how the Holy Spirit is speaking. So here goes today:

Last night, my nightly practice is before sleeping is to read my daily scripture and pray through those scriptures as my last act of the day. Yesterdays reading in the read through the Bible in a year that I am following included Matthew 11. As I came to the end of that chapter, I read verses, that I have probably read 100 or 1000 times.

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)

My thoughts and nighttime prayers centered on burdens that are being carried. Admittingly, we are all carrying some type of burden. We carry soulful burdens trying to reason if we are in the right place in our relationship with God. We carry burdens of expectations both that we place on ourselves and that others place on us that become burdens. We carry burdens for our family, friends, relationships, health concerns, finances, work, family situations and a multitude of others depending upon what season in our life we are in. We are burden carriers.

It seems as if sometimes we are patiently waiting for direction and other times we allow confusion, insecurity, and speculation to rule the day and our way. It would be much easier if God would just shout instructions or demand outcomes. Instead of insisting, God invites. That is how I sense God moving in my life right now, not demanding but with no pressure inviting me to follow His way and surrender to His will.

Matthew 11:28-30 needs to become deeply personal. Jesus is speaking to those who are feeling worn out, carrying responsibilities, expectations, and the quiet weight of trying to hold everything together. He does not criticize the weariness. He names it—and then offers a way – and offers rest.

I feel God speaking gently into the places where striving to please and be satisfied has taken over listening. Where responsibility has overshadowed relationship.  Where trying to please others and meet others expectations has taken over trying to please God. Where doing for God has quietly replaced being with God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and allowing the holy triune God to be our source of hope, love, joy, peace and contentment.

“Come to me,” Jesus says. Not “I’ll fix it for you” . Not “I will figure it out for you”. Not “prove yourself before I do anything”  Jesus says “Come to me” “take my yoke” or I like the words “be yoked with me”. But regardless “just come!”

I’m thankful this morning for God’s word that I have surrendered to in reading the Bible for me. Not for sermon prep. Or to explain something to someone else, just to allow God’s word to permeate the inner depths of my soul, knowing what I need, and answering the when, why, what, and where. Hearing the Spirit say “You can’t carry this alone anymore.”  God is not removing every responsibility—but He is reshaping how I/We carry them. His yoke, Jesus says, is easy not because the burdens disappear, but because I am no longer carrying it alone.

I sense God teaching me that faith, trust, peace even rest comes from intimacy. It is probably learning over again what intimacy and relationship is all about. Matthew 11 reminds me that God’s movement in my life right now is not about tramping on the gas pedal with rapid acceleration and moving forward aligned with God.  A realignment of heart, pace, and posture. Less force. More faith. Less noise. More nearness.

Today, I hear God’s voice not pushing me forward but drawing me closer. What about you?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I come to You weary but willing. Teach me Your pace. Exchange my heavy burdens for Your gentle yoke. Let my life be shaped not by pressure, but by Your presence. Help me rest in You—and walk in step with You. Amen.