Page 13 - The Importance of Prayer Student Textbook

renouncing self-efforts and taking up the yoke or teachings of the master. Notice the second part of the
verse, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you. This entire manuscript is all about taking up the
yoke of the master. Let me elaborate on His Yoke.

The word yoke had a double meaning in the day of Jesus. A yoke was a long piece of wood that was used
to connect a team of oxen together. But the word yoke was also a word that Jewish rabbis used to
describe a system of teaching. If students were to embrace a certain rabbi’s teaching, they we said to
have taken up the yoke of the rabbi. What Jesus is saying to the disciples was this. He said if you
embrace my teachings then you will experience a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. However,
Henry Blackaby warns us that “We are so activity oriented that we assume we were saved for a task we
are to perform rather than a relationship to enjoy”.

Just a few more thoughts on this matter of abiding. A. W. Tozer said, “God must do everything for us.
Our part is to yield and trust”. Major Ian Thomas said, “The Christian life is nothing less than the life
which He lived then…lived now by Him in you”. Before the apostles ever preached a sermon, healed a
person, or cast out a demon what were they called to do? To be with Him.

We need to understand that being with Jesus is the ultimate pursuit of our lives. Being with Jesus always
comes before doing anything. Doing flows from being, not the other way around. This is a crucial
principle for anyone who wants to live as a faithful follower of Jesus: the primary call on my life is not to
do something for Jesus; the primary call on my life is to be with Jesus. Why don’t we see the need to
spend time with God each day? The answer is pride. Pride says to God, I don’t need you. I don’t think
you start any day by looking up to heaven and saying, “God, I don’t need you today. I’m good on my
own”. But that’s what you’re saying with your prayerlessness and actions.

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