By Oswald Chambers

      'Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.'
      Matthew 11:29

      "Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth." How petty our complaining is! Our Lord begins to bring us into the place where we can have communion with Him, and we groan and say - "O Lord, let me be like other people!" Jesus is asking us to take one end of the yoke - "My yoke is easy, get alongside Me and we will pull together." Are you identified with the Lord Jesus like that? If so, you will thank God for the pressure of His hand.

      "To them that have no might He increaseth strength." God comes and takes us out of our sentimentality, and our complaining turns into a pćan of praise. The only way to know the strength of God is to take the yoke of Jesus upon us and learn of Him.

      "The joy of the Lord is your strength." Where do the saints get their joy from? If we did not know some saints, we would say - "Oh, he, or she, has nothing to bear." Lift the veil. The fact that the peace and the light and the joy of God are there is proof that the burden is there too. The burden God places squeezes the grapes and out comes the wine; most of us see the wine only. No power on earth or in hell can conquer the Spirit of God in a human spirit, it is an inner unconquerableness.

      If you have the whine in you, kick it out ruthlessly. It is a positive crime to be weak in God's strength.