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.