HORSING AROUND IN THE YEAR OF THE HORSE

It’s wonderful to celebrate Chinese New Year as we connect with our family members and friends. Tis’ the season for meaningful reunions, good food and goodwill.

As we gallop into the Year of the Horse, let's focus on several life principles related to this horsy character.

                                                                    

                                                                   

Firstly, are we trying to figure out everything in our lives? Jeremiah questioned God why He had allowed the wicked to prosper. Why didn’t God punish the wicked? Why didn’t God arise and set aright the injustice he saw happening right before his eyes (Jeremiah 12:1-4)?

Notice God’s reply to him in Jeremiah 12:5: "If you have raced on foot against men and they have worn you out, how will you be able to compete with horses?”

It seems that God is telling off Jeremiah that His ways are much higher than his ways. Jeremiah has no right to question God. If Jeremiah, a mere man, cannot outrun a horse, how can he question the ways of the Creator who is much more powerful than a horse?

Next time, when we cannot figure something out—like why God allows injustice—let’s remind ourselves that we have no right to tell God how to run the world or our lives.

Secondly, at an opportune time, God can empower His servants with the strength of a horse. We’ll be able then to do great and mighty things that will astound ourselves (John 14:12). When God equips us to do His work, we’ll be able to do exceedingly far more than what we can ever ask or think (Ephesians 3:20).

Such was the case of a prophet who ran ahead and overtook an evil king’s horse-drawn chariot: “Then the LORD gave special strength to Elijah. He tucked his cloak into his belt and ran ahead of Ahab's chariot all the way to the entrance of Jezreel” (1 Kings 18:46).

Thirdly, despite the fact that a horse’s strength is legendary, God views with utmost contempt all things connected with the horse as a symbol of man’s pride, glory and might.

Didn’t Jesus enter Jerusalem riding a humble donkey?  Why not a horse-drawn chariot with all the pomp and grandeur befitting of royalty?

• “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God” (Psalm 20:7).

       

• “His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love”

           (Psalm 147:10-11).

   

• “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD”

          (Proverbs 21:31).

        

And that brings us to the fourth point: We need to rely on God’s strength. Indeed, victory rests in the hands of God (Psalm 46: 1-3).

Under threat of foreign invasion, Judah depended on a military alliance with Egypt to beef up its defenses. Without consulting God, Judah chose to trust in Pharaoh's horses and chariots (Isaiah 30:1-4).

However, King Jehoshaphat did not rely on foreign horses and chariots. When the combined armies of Moab, Ammon and Edom declared war on Judah, Jehoshaphat trusted God and His prophets and that helped him defeat his enemies (2 Chronicles 20:20).

King David sinned against God when he took a census of the people in Israel and Judah. Trying to ascertain the size of his army was tantamount to seeking glory in his own military might and superiority (2 Samuel 24:1-10).

God had raised him from humble beginnings as a shepherd boy and given him power and prosperity. But it seemed that, through this act of taking a census, David trusted his soldiers, chariots and horses more than God.

Our security must not be in modern-day horses or chariots—ancestry, money, power or fame—but in God alone. “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage” (Psalm 84:5).

Fifthly, apart from relying on God’s strength, we need spiritual insight, understanding and discernment. We need something more than just brute strength. We are not to be like a horse that merely prances around, displaying its powerful leg muscles.

“Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you" (Psalm 32:9).

To gain such wisdom, we need to seek God, study His word and meditate on it. And allow the Holy Spirit to guide us (Psalm 42:1-2; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; Joshua 1:8; John 14:26, John 16: 13; Hebrews 5:12-14).

In our fleshly desire to get or do what we want—or what we perceive as what God wants—let us not gallop ahead of God. But learn to wait for His instructions. And move only when the Holy Spirit prompts us (Psalm 37:4-7; Romans 8:14).

We need to march in step with God’s drumbeat. We have to learn from the horse how to move at different speeds—from trot to canter to gallop.  

And we must know when to stop, especially when we are approaching a cliff. That’s when the cares, pleasures and riches of this life (Luke 8:14) threaten to draw us away from the path of steady progress in our spiritual pilgrimage. Hold our horses! Don't fall headlong into the abyss.

That life will always turn out well—the way we expect—as we gallop into the fading sunset like Hollywood heroes is merely fantasy. We need faith, vigilance and perseverance.

While Chinese New Year 2014 is a most appropriate time to horse around, it’s also a season to pause and reflect.

Horsing around is good for a season. But we also need the horse sense to be sober.

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HANG IN THERE, DON'T GIVE UP

                                                                           

Sometimes, we don’t like to admit that testings are an integral part of the Christian experience as much as blessings and victories.

However, the process of growing into maturity involves learning to persevere through our trials and arriving at a place of unshakeable faith.

                                                                             

What are some of the important signs of the end times Jesus spoke about at the Mount of Olives?

Persecution, deception and falling away from the faith (apostasy).

“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24: 9-13).

It is implied by Jesus that if we fail to persevere, if we fall away because of persecution or become victims of deception, we will NOT be saved (Matthew 24:13). A most serious warning indeed.

                                                 

Thus it is so important to be strong and well-rooted in Christ as the turbulence of the end times will only get worse.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6–7).

It is equally important that we do not allow the cares, worries, riches and pleasures of the world to distract us and lure us away from the faith, like the seed which fell among thorns in The Parable of the Sower:

“The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature” (Luke 8:14).

Indeed we should be like the seed which fell on good soil: “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15).

The process of growing into maturity involves learning to persevere through our trials and doubts, and arriving at a place of unshakeable faith (James 1:2-4, Hebrews12:11 and 2 Corinthians 4:16-17).

                                                                           

Sometimes, we don’t like to admit that trials are an integral part of the Christian experience as much as blessings and victories. Indeed, there will be times when even fervent believers begin to doubt. They feel as if God has forsaken them (Psalm 77: 8-9).

But the truth is this: God will never leave or forsake them (Hebrews 13:5, Deuteronomy 31:6).

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James1:2-4).

Hebrews chapter 10 highlights the fact that persevering faith is needed to remain saved:

But my righteous one will live by faith.

    And I take no pleasure

    in the one who shrinks back.”

But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

(Hebrews 10:38-39).

Jude reinforces the truth that persevering faith is needed:

“I wish to remind you, as you all know, that God, when once he had brought the people out from Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe” (Jude 1:5). Instead of taking possession of the Promised Land after leaving Egypt and crossing the Red Sea, God’s chosen people fell.

Paul outlines, in greater detail, the events leading to their fall from God’s favour:

“For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

“Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. And do not grumble, as some of them did —and were killed by the destroying angel.

“These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come” (1 Corinthians 10:1-11).

Peter exhorts believers to be all the more diligent to confirm our calling and election for if we practice ‘these qualities’ we will never fall (2 Peter 1:10).

And what are ‘these qualities’? They are spelled out in the preceding verses: “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7).

Peter issues a solemn warning to believers who willfully choose to live in sin:

“For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them” (2 Peter 2:20-21).

But how many have the faith to persevere?  Jesus laments in Luke 18:8b: “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

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