Stop Kicking!

When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew language, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads." - Acts 26:14

Having you ever been guilty of "kicking against the goads?" A "goad" is a long, pointed pole used to keep the oxen or cattle from straying too far from their intended path. When the animals are poked they kick at the source of their irritation while still trying to pursue their errant ways.

Jesus used this word picture to describe Saul's resistance to God's intended path for his life (implying, I might add, that this struggle had been going on for some time). Of course, Saul (Paul) eventually succumbed to God's desire, was converted, and accomplished his own intended life's purpose.

How about you? Are you currently moving through life under the consistent, gentle (or not so gentle) sting of God's extended nudge? Stop kicking. There is a path that He intends and you might as well go ahead and yield.

I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England. - C. S. Lewis