Running with Horses!

            In Jeremiah 12 there is found one of my favorite sections of Scripture...and I realize that I have many favorites!...but in Jeremiah 12:3 it states,

 "But you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart toward you."  He continues in verse 5 and now declares the type of testing he will have to encounter:

             "If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? And if in a safe land you are so trusting, what will you do when the Jordan overflows.?"

            How will God test us today? I don’t know about you but I hate tests! This is one of the reasons I pray ever day for the Lord to lead me not into temptation but to deliver me from evil. I can’t imagine how poorly I would do if I wasn’t praying for this protection. I don’t do well with tests, yet the test is the necessary step that leads to genuine heart change.  Blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.”  James 1:12

            Jeremiah really understood this. I love what the way he said, “If you have raced with men on foot, and they have wearied you…”  If the people we know and love are getting under our skin, how will we be able to handle the really difficult tests when they come?  If we are coasting during the relatively smooth times in life, what will we do when the waters of life begin to swallow us?

            There is a way that we can be prepared.  Psalm 119 says that “Your Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against You.” 

“How shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word.”   While reading in the book of Nehemiah this morning chapters 8 and 9, I found that the people read the Word for six hours and then confessed their sin for six hours!!!  In the west we spend more time watching tv, emailing, doing YouTube, computer games, and using our cell phones, than we do in the Word.  I like what C.S. Lewis said about telephones, “I will not be at the mercy of the telephone.”  Here was a man of extraordinary literary ability.  Was he just gifted?  No. He was diligent and used his time wisely. He was self disciplined when it came to study. He cultivated a beautiful mind and now we are the benefactors of his sacrifice. 

            I realize that that I have left my original path of Running with Horses; may we redeem the time God has given us.