There is a difference between a fine horse and a Ford Mustang. A good horse, well trained, with the direction of a good rider, can do a forehand turn. He can change direction without so much as a step forward or back.
But I don’t care how good of a driver you are—Mustang, race car or pickup truck—you get in any car I’ve ever seen and turn the wheel, that car is not going to turn unless it’s moving.
You see, we can become so insecure about what direction God might want for us that we become paralyzed with fear about the future, or uncertainty, and we go nowhere—we go nowhere spiritually.
Like a car, not a horse, if we would simply begin to move forward, then God could steer us in the direction He would have for us.
Here’s what I have learned in thirty years as a follower of Christ: that we always know enough to take the first steps of obedience, but we never know the whole route. We never know the end. If you plant our feet, and say, God, until you tell me exactly where we’re going, I’m staying here, you will get nowhere.
But if you say, God I don’t know the end, I don’t even know tomorrow, but I know you’ve asked me to follow you… to do this… to take a step, then you can begin your journey with confidence that you are following, walking, moving within God’s will.
When my kids first started to ride about two years ago, our friend, who was teaching them to ride, thought it would be good for them to get a taste of competition.
We didn’t know much at all… in fact, going to a speed show with a 10 and 12-year-old who had just learned to ride was probably a dumb idea. We were so green. The kids lacked confidence, and they often didn’t know how to tell their horse which way to go.
Nathan was struggling a little, when an older man walked up to him. “That’s a fine looking horse,” he said.
“Thank you, sir,” Nathan responded quietly.
“Do you mind if I ride him?” he asked.
Nathan wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know the man, didn’t know the protocol. So he looked to his teacher, and she smiled and nodded. It was ok.
The man took the reigns, looked the horse in the eye as if to say hello again, and then rode him into the ring.
None of us had ever seen someone ride like that. Turns and pivots. He ran the barrels with grace and speed. Then the horse skidded to a stop.
Nathan’s eyes were wide. He had no idea his horse could do those things.
The man walked back to Nathan and handed him back the reigns to his horse. “It’s all in there… in his head,” he said. “He knows all those things and more. You’ll learn how to ride him like that. Just don’t be afraid.”
And then he walked away.
The man was his riding instructor’s father. We had never met him, but the horse had. He had been his horse, that he had bred and trained, and rode for many years.
And now it was Nathan’s turn to ride him. And that day changed how Nathan rode.
The same can be true for us in our Christian lives. We may have no idea the scope of what God wants to do, and can do, in and through each of us. But if we could get just a glimpse of what it could look like to pray earnestly, to live restored, and to walk confidently in God’s will… it will unlock for us a whole new kind of life of faith.
This is my earnest prayer for each of you: that God would continue to restore you, to make you strong and complete in Him, and to give you confidence to walk each day within his good, pleasing and perfect will.
This is the third post in a brief series from Colossians 4:12. The first, God hears your earnest prayers, and the second, God is working to restore you completely.