Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Horse Sense


Read: Acts 9:1-6

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.                     Acts 9:5 

     I recently watched a cowboy from Utah demonstrate how to break and a ride a horse that had never been ridden. As the wild horse was brought into the pen, he seemed relatively calm. He was on edge because he was trying to figure out what was going on, but he wasn’t violently bucking as one might expect an unbroken mare to do. As the cowboy began to work with the horse, however, he used his rope in ways that made the horse very uncomfortable – and the disposition of the horse changed. He began to run around the pen, doing everything he could to break free from this interference in his normal routine that he was facing. The cowboy stayed  patient and persistent. Eventually, he had the horse exactly where he wanted him – eyes and ears turned toward the cowboy and following him at every step he took. The horse had been humbled, but it was then that he became useful. The cowboy was able to place a saddle on him and get on his back. Now he could teach him to do anything he wanted him to do.
     That reminded me so much of the way many young men act. They are fine with life when they are in their comfort zone, doing the things that they want to do. But, as they sit in a church service where God begins to deal with their hearts about going into full-time ministry or even just about changing some things in their lives, and they are moved into a position they feel is uncomfortable, they begin to buck against God’s will for their lives. Many times God has to make it even more uncomfortable for them until they finally see things His way and start to give in to Him. It is a humbling experience, but when, at last, they allow Him to change them, it is then that He can use them. They become useful to God when they allow Him to mould them into what He wants them to be.
     Young men, just like unbroken horses, cannot see the end from the beginning. Often they only see the things God is doing to them as His way of bullying them or trying to make life difficult. What they eventually realize, however, is that all of the discomfort, all of the humbling, and all of the coaxing is for their own good. An unbroken horse may have his freedom, but he will never be useful to a cowboy working on a ranch. Likewise, a young man who never gives up his will for God’s may have some worldly freedom, but he will never be useful in God’s service – and that is the only thing that matters.


Quote of the day: “Whenever God means to make a man great, He breaks him in pieces first.        - Charles Spurgeon






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