re: Matthew 11:28-30

vs. 28 “Come unto me all ye that labor [(Gr) kopiao: are weary with toil or burdens] and are heavy laden  [phortizo: loaded with a heavy burden, as of (in early Christian usage) ‘faults of conscience which oppress the soul’].”

Quoting Matthew 11:28, Latter-day Prophets have said:

To come unto Christ means “to divest yourself of every foreign thought, act, and inclination”(Elder Spencer W. Kimball, April 1958 CR). We have fully come unto Christ when “His ways have become our ways”(Elder James E. Faust, April 1992 CR.)

“[W]e should be careful to not haul around in our lives so many nice but unneces-sary things that we are distracted and diverted from the things that truly matter” (Elder David A. Bednar, April 2014 CR).

Quoting Matthew 11:29, Elder Bednar has said, “Making and keeping sacred covenants yokes us to and with the Lord Jesus Christ”(Apr 2014 CR); Elder Dallin H. Oaks has said, “Intense, daily scripture study, regular temple worship, and serious participation in the ordinance of the sacrament are all indisp-ensable [and] serve to deepen and strengthen our relationship with the Savior, our understanding of His atoning sacrifice, and our faith in His healing power”(See Oct 2006 CR); and Elder Neal A. Maxwell said, “By taking Jesus’ yoke upon us and enduring, we learn most deeply of Him and … how to be like Him”(Apr 1990 CR).

[30] “For my yoke is easy [chrestos (Gr): more pleasant; manageable; a better fit] and my burden [phortion (Gr): used (in early Christian usage) in ‘contrast to the precepts of the Pharisees, the observance of which was most oppressive’] is light.”

Quoting Matthew 11:30, Latter-day Prophets have said:

“Many think that discipleship is too burdensome[; that it] involves giving up too much. But the cross [we must bear] is not as heavy as it appears. Through obedi-ence we acquire much greater strength to carry it.”(Elder James E. Faust, Oct 2006 CR.)

“[Christ] invited them from drudgery to pleasant service; from the well-nigh

unbearable burdens of … formalism, to the liberty of truly spiritual worship…. The [leaders of the] Jews had divided and subdivided the commandments of the law, and had supplemented even the minutest subdivision with rules of their own contriving…. What need of [these] could there be if [they] would obey thefirst and [second] great and all-embracing commandment[s]?”  (Elder James E. Talmage Jesus the Christ, 259).

vss. 28-29  “I will give you rest….  [Y]e shall find rest unto your souls”

Exodus 33:14  “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”

JST Exodus 34:1-2 “… I will take away the priesthood out of their midst…and the ordinances thereof …for they shall not enter into my presence, into my rest.”

D&C 84:22-25   “For without this no man can see the face of God … and live. Now this Moses plainly taught … and sought diligently to sanctify his people that they might behold the face of God; But they hardened their hearts and could not endure his presence; therefore, the Lord … swore that they should not enter into his rest …  Therefore, he took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood.”

Jacob 1:7  “Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear [that] they should not enter in, as in … the days [when] the children of Israel were in the wilderness.”

Alma 13:12-13  “[A]fter being sanctified by the Holy Ghost [they] could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were … many who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord... [Now] humble yourselves before God, and bring forth fruit meet for repentance, that ye may also enter into that rest.”

Alma 37:33-34  “Preach … repentance, and faith on the Lord Jesus Christ; teach them to humble themselves and to be meek and lowly in heart… Teach them to never be weary of good works … for such shall find rest to their souls.”

Moses 7:69  “And Enoch and all his people walked with God, and he dwelt in the midst of Zion” “And it shall yet be, when the Lord brings again Zion in her fulness and glory, that all his people will walk with him, and he shall dwell on earth with them” (Elder Bruce R. McConkie, The Millennial Messiah, 283-284).

“Entering into God's rest means entering into the knowledge and love of God to such an extent that we know the [Gospel] is of God. I pray that we may all enter into God's rest—rest from doubt, from fear.… Let us all strive for this … and if we will … we shall enter into God's rest, right here, in this world. For he that enters into God's rest here will never more be disturbed by the hallucinations of sin and wickedness.” (See President Joseph F. Smith, Oct 1909 CR; Gospel Doctrine, 462.) 

“[W]e find solace in Christ through the agency of the Comforter ...  As we do this, healing takes place, just as the Lord promised through the prophet Jeremiah when he said, 'I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow' (Jeremiah 31:13)." (Elder James E. Faust, April 1992 CR.)

“The knowledge that God lives … and that he loves us soothes the troubled heart” (Elder Howard W. Hunter, Oct 1966 CR).