When you’re first saved, you usually experience a period of extraordinary freedom and seem to be able to get away with almost anything. You experience amazing answers to prayer, and even when you’ve done some questionable things, somehow God lets you off the hook. Then God says, ‘All right, time for the next phase.’ At this point you demonstrate by your reaction whether you’ve really learned to submit to him. Will you resist God-ordained restrictions or will you patiently submit and trust Him.
We can picture that colt on the hillside running in circles and calling to his friend, ‘Come and join me! Come and enjoy the freedom!’ Yes, this colt is free, but he’s getting nowhere. The carriage horse is conscious of a deep sense of fulfillment and purpose. The one colt is weak, immature and foolish compared with his strong, well-trained colleague.
Christians will go through times of testing in which they feel like they’ve been restrained in a corral. God will use those who are willing to undergo discipline, those who don’t rebel when God says, ‘I’m shutting you in. There’s a purpose in it. Move when I tell you to move.’
Christians aren’t free. We’re slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ and he wants us to respond positively to his training programme. Do you receive the discipline of God? Are you willing to be shut in or must you always be ‘free’? Do you make all your own decisions and do whatever you like, or have you found purpose in pruning, in being cut back? When God begins to bless you with fruit, don’t be surprised when you suddenly feel his pruning knife. You’re being cut back not because he no longer loves you, but because he wants you to bear even more fruit for Him.
HT: Terry Virgo
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