Jesus Makes It Easy!

Whoosh! There he goes again. We barely made it crossing in front of that semi! Why are you making this so hard? We don’t have to keep veering over to pay the toll every few miles. There is this perfectly useful device on the windshield from the rental car company. All you have to do is open it up and we can settle the account when we turn in the car. But no. My husband was determined to pay-as-you-go so we didn’t have to worry about it later.

I always hated to see some smart aleck kid in school swaggering to the front of the room to turn in his paper long before the rest of us were finished grinding out the answers. What was even worse was the proclamation from his lips, “That was EASY!” No one likes to hear something is easy when we’re the ones struggling.

Well, actually school was pretty easy for me… most of the time. I guess that’s why I became a teacher. I liked the classroom atmosphere and wanted others to experience the same joy in learning.

But why do we feel if we aren’t working hard to accomplish something, then there isn’t any value in it? Every so often parents would come to me, the teacher, complaining that school was too easy for their kids. What they saw as easy, I saw as confidence in being able to “do school” and not stressing over the learning process. Why did school always have to be a struggle? Why did it have to be so hard? There were enough children who had learning problems. They should be grateful that, for their children, there was so much more to life than the hard work of school.

Salvation is easy for us. Really and truly. All we have to do is believe in the saving power of Jesus. Years ago, when my husband quoted John 3:16, someone actually shouted at him, “You can’t say it’s that easy!”

Oh yes it is!

Our human nature wants us to have to contribute our own efforts. If we don’t have to work for it, it must not be worth much.

Oh, but it’s worth everything! It’s in the “priceless” category that the advertising industry is always talking about. It’s worth the very life of our Lord Jesus.

But there’s more. When I know I’m headed toward an eternity with my Lord (actually that eternity has already begun!), I still have the hard part of living here on this earth with all of its burdens. But even that’s easier than I make it at times.

Because when I’m walking on this path with Jesus at my side I feel the yoke He has on me, the one He promises is easy and light. The one that gives my soul rest (Matthew 11:29-30).

Then I can relax and quit veering off the straight course He’s prepared for me… trying to pay for what has already been taken care of… trying to make life harder than it has to be.

And His comforting voice calms my fears: “Let me do the worrying. I’ve taken away all the stress of paying. Now relax. And trust me!”

And that restores my joy!

Leaving my guilt at the cross,

Christine