A yoke is the wooden piece, or frame, that connects two creatures together for the purpose of equally distributing a load or burden. Oxen are the animals perhaps most-commonly considered as beasts of burden, and especially in bible times these were referred to as a yoke of oxen. If one animal became lame and could not pull, the second animal would be ineffective because the load would be pulled only from one side, causing the cart to veer off the road, or the plow to till across the already cultivated rows. An injury to one would require an immediate cessation of work until the situation could be resolved by substituting another animal. But what about if we aren't talking about animals here?
Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 6:14 that believers should not be yoked - or married - to unbelievers. Why might this be? Matters of the spirit are the most personal of all matters. Traversing the long road of life, we all go through seasons of crises. When this happens, if our partner cannot see the situation through the same spiritual lense, we find ourselves either pulling the load alone, or being pulled along by a yoke that isn't slowing down for us in our wounded state. This is devastating. Much like the yoke of oxen, our cart ends up in the ditch, or worse.
Unfortunately, many find themselves in this predicament after it's too late. The realization hits about the same time as the crisis, and despair soon follows. What can a person do? Divorce is the default. We slip out of the yoke. But this isn't the fix-all, is it? Anyone who has experienced this knows that there is a trail of destruction behind divorce: broken relationships, split families, emotional scars, financial turmoil... the list goes on. But there is hope!
God is the healer. He can heal anything, including a broken relationship. But our focus should not be our partner. Rather, we should concentrate on becoming who we need to be to help our partner. Shift the focus to God in your life. Let HIM worry about your partner, because He will! When you realign to His will and seek Him, things will begin to fall into place. We aren't taking about a one-night bible study. No. Life change! Seek Him first! Does that mean that everything will work out exactly how you want? No, not every time, but what it does mean is that IT WILL BE OKAY. He is so, so much better at this that you or I can imagine... we just need to have faith, trust, and follow!