Dance with Jesus
Do you ever struggle with following Jesus without knowing where you’re going? It’d be nice to know where Jesus is taking you, right? It is hard to trust without any reservations. We might even doubt our own abilities to follow.
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.30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30, NIV)
Taking up the yoke Jesus is offering isn’t necessarily that appealing. Our mental picture of being yoked does not sound easy or delightful. But we are wrong.
Dictionary.com gives different definitions. Here are a few of them:
1. a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, especially oxen, usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces, each enclosing the head of an animal.
2. a frame fitting the neck and shoulders of a person, for carrying a pair of buckets or the like, one at each end.
3. an emblem or symbol of subjection, servitude, slavery, etc., as an archway under which prisoners of war were compelled to pass by the ancient Romans and others.4. something that couples or binds together; a bond or tie.
Being yoked is not a bad thing. It aims to make our burden easier. It could also be something that binds us together with Jesus. The main goal is to make things easy and delightful for us.
All these mental pictures we have of being yoked are so archaic that we have hard time to really capture what it means to be yoked. How about taking a new twist on it? What if we thought of following Christ as following him as his dance partner?
How about a dance with Jesus? The church is his bride. When the groom asks his bride to dance, the bride follows. The groom has the responsibility to lead, the bride’s responsibility is just to follow.
The more the bride surrenders to the groom, the better she enjoys the flow of the dance. The more the bride trusts the groom, the more easy and delightful the dance becomes.
Could following Christ be this easy and delightful? Could we stop thinking about where Jesus is leading us and just enjoy the flow of the dance? Could we stop thinking about our ability to follow and just let Jesus lead us any way he wants?
Committed dancers are tied with an invisible cord. I think that’s what I want. I want to be bonded to Christ that way. I want to dance with Jesus. That yoke sounds easy and delightful, doesn’t it?
Gracious God,
Thank for making us the bride of Christ.
Thanks for enabling us to follow Christ.
Thanks for making it easy and delightful.
We want to be bonded to you, Lord.
Tie us to you with invisible cords.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen
Q4U: What are your thoughts on following Jesus? Do you want to dance with Jesus?
Be blessed, my fellow pilgrim, as you dance with Jesus!
* [As you might have noticed, I enjoy reading the Bible in different translations and love comparing them. I have started linking the Bible verses to Biblegateway.com so you can easily read (and compare) them in the different versions I’ve used while preparing each post.].
Photo courtesy of /Wikimedia, design by Mari-Anna Stålnacke. Linking up today with Dance with Jesus, Faith-filled Fridays, Five Minute Friday.
9 thoughts on “Dance with Jesus”
How beautiful is this post!! Thanks for encouraging me today to be more near Jesus. Blessings
Thank you so much, Tayrina! (Your name is beautiful btw.) May God bless you and keep you close!
Looks like we meet again 😉 I wasn’t doing FMF during write31days but it seems we haven’t lost our rhythm. Fits nicely with todays prompt of dance.
Funny. I need to come and visit your place too. Thanks, Debby. Blessings to you!
This is a beautiful image of Jesus as our dance partner. It’s so true that the better we follow his lead, the better the dance flows.
And the more enjoyable it is! Yes! Thanks, Carly! God bless you!
Yes! Dance With Jesus indeed. Brother SeBasco told me two steps forward, one step back isn’t a setback, it’s a dance – when Jesus is leading! Yes ma’am, Dance…with Jesus.
You know it rings true in my heart because it’s the name of the book I wrote. Dance With Jesus: From Grief to Grace
Wise words from brother SeBasco! Thanks for sharing, Susan! I didn’t make the connection with you book until I was linking up. I often talk about dancing on grace but this was the first time I was talking about dancing with Jesus. Thank you! God bless you!
Thanks! And God bless you. Richly.