MY YOKE IS EASY!         DO 169   6/72

         1. Leadership is a very great responsibility, a heavy burden & just A PLAIN BIG JOB OF A LOT OF HARD WORK, tension, confusion, excitement, concerns & physical, mental & nervous strain which tends to be pretty hard on you. Even the Lord Himself could not bear the continual strain & virtue drain of a constant ministry to the multitudes, which is what your ministry really is, so He frequently had to GET AWAY FROM IT ALL & take His disciples up into the mountains or out to sea or on a private visit to friends, for A SPIRITUAL RETREAT, REST & RECUPERATION & INSPIRATION--sometimes even all alone!
         2. No one can continue to keep pouring out to others without spending some TIME ALONE WITH THE LORD GETTING FILLED UP AGAIN! I've been in the Lord's Work for half a century & my Mother for half a century before me & my Grandfather for half a century before her, so I know what I'm talking about! As A.B. Simpson, that grand old man of faith, once said, "YOU CANNOT DO THE MASTER'S WORK WITHOUT THE MASTER'S POWER!"--And to get it, you must spend time with the Master!
         3. We all need more quiet time alone with the Lord in rest & refilling, drinking at the Living Water of His Word & fellowshipping with Him in the Communion of Prayer & the sweet lovemaking of the Spirit!
         4. None of us can stand these constant pressures of continuous demands on our time, strength, body, soul & spirit to which we are so often forced to submit, without relief, by the press of time, necessity, need & one emergency after another so prevalent in such a fastmoving & rapidly expanding work such as ours where the labourers are so few, the Harvest so big & there's so much to be done to gather it in before the Storm!
         5. But the Lord Himself has said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour & are heavy-laden & I WILL GIVE YOU REST. Take My yoke upon you, & learn of Me; for I am meek & lowly in heart; & ye shall find rest unto your souls. For MY YOKE IS EASY, & MY BURDEN IS LIGHT." And His Word also warns us that we must be "TEMPERATE in all things" & "let your MODERATION be known to all men". If the yoke gets too hard & the burden too heavy, it's not HIS yoke nor HIS burden, but our OWN or someone ELSE'S which we've unwisely undertaken or permitted to be placed upon us beyond the Lord's knowledge of our strength & abilities! He HIMSELF will NEVER SUFFER US TO BE TEMPTED ABOVE THAT WHICH WE ARE ABLE!
         6. Sometimes we're tempted to take too much upon us, but certainly not by the Lord, & sometimes we allow our strength to be taxed beyond what we know we can wisely endure; & in so doing we often allow ourselves to be pushed beyond the measure of our own faith & suffer the consequences in a physical, mental, nervous or spiritual collapse, of which I myself testified in the Letter "Breakdown" (see No.66). Please don't let it happen to you! TAKE TIME TO BE HOLY.--WHOLLY HIS & whole in BODY, MIND & SPIRIT! "THOU SHALT KEEP HIM IN PERFECT PEACE whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee."--Isa.26:3.
         7. Your strength must be conserved & nerves protected from too great a strain! Please forgive us for having let you be put under too much pressure & may the Lord forgive us! We love you, & you have a great work to do for the Lord! TAKE MORE TIME OUT to be strengthened for it! You could do this partly by READING HIS WORD! GBAKYACTMYAB!