Riding a Dead Horse Pt. 1
This week, I was galloping a horse around outside in the beautiful cold
weather. Into my memory came a friend of mine and something that she had
told me over lunch one day. She had been asking God for some answers about
a relationship in her life. She was uncertain as to whether to end this
relationship or continue on in a very difficult situation. She had moved to
a new area and was visiting a new church. The pastor was preaching away
when he stopped, turned and looked straight at her and said these words, “If
the horse is dead, dismount!” She was pretty sure that the Lord has spoken
to her that this relationship that she was in was dead and that she needed
to move on. I thought that there was so much wisdom in those words that I
pondered them for days.
It sounds really silly to
be riding a dead horse, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought
about things that we do in our lives that are as futile and as
non-productive as riding a dead horse. God began to show me things that
have no life in them. He brought up in my spirit the words of a pastor in a
church that I visited last week. The pastor said that we needed to be
careful not get complacent and just come to church expecting the same old
ritual each week. We need to come expecting great things to happen. If we
are not careful, we can get into a routine in church and never experience
any changes in our lives. It reminded me of the scripture where Jesus said
that the traditions of men make the Word of God of no effect. (Matthew
15:6) If we are not moving on in our spiritual lives and growing up
according to the Word, we are riding a dead horse of religion. We should
expect great things at church and listen carefully to what God is saying to
us through the songs, the testimonies, the Sunday school class, the sermon,
etc. We will be riding a live horse that is taking us down the path of
transformation when we hear and DO!! (Matthew 7:24)
I meet people often that
are stuck in grief and loss. There is a sorrow that works repentance and
change in our lives and there is a sorrow of the world that ends in death.
(2 Cor. 7:10) When we yield our flesh to the hurt and pain of loss for too
long, we ride a dead horse. We can become a slave to self-pity, sorrow and
grief because we yield to it. (Romans 6) We need to feel our pain, reveal
it to a prayer partner and find the tools to heal. Many churches offer
support groups and bible studies that will provide us tools to move back
into joy. If we do not come up out of our grief, our children and those
around us eventually will get tired of being around us. We will live life
just as an existence and never grow from the experience. Jesus Christ came
to heal the broken hearted and to set at liberty those who are bruised.
Make it a goal today to leave behind you the losses and reach forward to
what God has for you ahead. Ride a live horse. Change requires that we get
off the dead horse and mount the live one. Change means that we have to let
go of something to reach forward to what lies ahead.
I have friends who live
together before marriage. That is riding a dead horse. The wages of sin
are always death. (Romans 6:23) The highest divorce rate in the United
States is from marriages of people who lived together for a time before
marriage. Besides that statistic, anytime we move into sin, we are moving
AWAY from God. We are moving away from the place of blessings. God’s word
tells us to draw near to him and he will draw near to us. (James 4:8) When
we go against his word, the opposite happens. Jump on a live horse and ride
into the places where He is waiting to bless and fellowship with you.
Imagine the futility of
riding on a dead horse, putting energy into kicking and trying to revive it
when it is DEAD! Let’s ask God today to show us the ways that we are
wasting time and energy into dead things. Jesus is LIFE and LIGHT and He
desires to TRANSFORM us. (Rom. 12:2) Let’s
MOVE on today and vault
onto the back of a LIVE horse.