STOP

"...Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads." And I said, "Who are you, Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting"(Acts 9:4-5).

 

 

Have you ever wonder why as human beings when told to do something we tend to be tempted to want to do the opposite? This desire starts at a very early age. Tell a toddler not to touch something, not to eat something, not to go out there, to sit,..yeah very early. This behavior grows right up with us and the older we get, the more unwise we seem to become, because for some reason we now believe we know better. I don't know better then what, but we really believe we know better. Do we?

 

Looking a little more closer at the life of Saul, later named Paul, we see that in all of his zeal he really  believed that his actions were justified, even got a stamp of approval from the synagogue itself to take out all follower's of Christ(Read Acts 9:1-2). He was moving right along strongly in his resolve only to come to a complete stop. That ever happened to you?  Your moving in a direction that you believe is right, you even have the approval of others, and then BAM?! That's what happened to Paul and that is what has happened to many of us. Our resolve was shattered. Our ideas were smashed. Our plans got stopped dead in their tracks. It happened so suddenly to us, that all we could do was submit, and that was just the right posture for us to receive instructions.

Paul's life was never the same after Jesus stopped him in his tracks, never. His mind was made up and he knew whom he believed(2Timothy 1:12). That same resolve he had in self, was now rooted in Christ and what an amazing change was made in him. When Christ stops us we will be forever changed as we submit. There are many who try to "kick against the goads" only to find themselves more exhausted, bruised, and depleted. The image of us trying to fight against God after He stops us reminds me of a Broadway musical, "Your Arms Too Short to Box with God: Soaring Celebration in Song and Dance." I did a little research and found out where that title originated from, and it was taken from  published sermons by James Waldon Johnson titled, "The Prodigal Son" in "God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse"-1927. It reads like this:

Young man-
Young man-
Your arms too short to box with God.
But Jesus spake in a parable, and he said:
A certain man had two sons,
Jesus didn't give this man a name,
But his is God Almighty.
And Jesus didn't call these sons by name,
But every young man,
Every where,
Is on of these two sons

 

God loves us too much to keep us moving in a direction that was never designed for us to travel on. If you been fighting against God, just stop, you are no match for Him. Sooner or later you will stop and may Jesus be the one you meet on that road.

Father, thank You for stopping us. Thank You for caring enough to stop us. Thank you for your arms that are opened wide and for Your love that runs deep. There are many of us who are kicking against the goads and don't want to submit, but I pray that submission will soon come and fighting will cease against You. We need You, and I thank You that You know this, and that is why You tell us today-STOP. May we submit to Your word, so that we will receive new instructions and be forever changed. In Jesus name, Amen.



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