Proverbs 14:4

Proverbs 14:4 Where no oxen are, the trough is clean; But much increase comes by the strength of an ox.


So you have come to a fork in the road. You stare forward and see two roads, both seem right, and in fact, both can be right, however, there is the easy road, and the hard road. You have traveled the easy road plenty of times so your accustomed to it. Then of course there is the other road. At the end of it, you can't quite make out the full picture, however, you know for certain that the result will be huge! In fact, this road is an untraveled, uncharted road. One you have never really taken before, and now you are left to decide, which way to go? For me, what comes to mind is what Paul says in Phil 3:12-15, to press on. Sure you might get stained on the hard road, sure you might get pushed around, you might get stretched, you might get cut, you may even be bruised, however, we must press on.

It is an uncertain, however, our comfort zones aren't meant to be our final destination in this thing they call life. We can't sit idle forever, God didn't call us to sit idle in idle chatter, He didn't call us to fall asleep in place and just sit and wait for Him to return, no. Matt 25 makes it clear that to do that would classify you as a "wicked and lazy servant." There is great gain in getting down and dirty with life and looking it straight in the face and saying "greater is He that is in me," because while certainly your barn might be clean without oxen, your life will be just as empty as that barn.

Sure you'll have the clean life, the easy life, but is that what God called us to live? There is much increase in the strength of an ox, there is much increase when one works towards the things of the Lord, when one is guided by God to do a thing or go to a place or become a part of something, to turn around and say, "Yeah but," is to sell your oxen and clear your barn. It is God that ultimately provides the increase in our lives. God isn't always in the business of hitting us upside the head. While most days I feel as though God just wants to punch me on a regular basis, I sometimes forget that God is pack filled with love and He is in the business of blessing His people. I, a lover of the book of James, forget that "every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights."

God wants to show Himself might in all of our lives, why? So that we can have a story to tell, so that when people look on at whatever it is happened, you can only explain it with one word, "God." So that when you look back you can say that it wasn't by my strength, it wasn't by my doing, it wasn't by my efforts, it was God, and God alone can have full credit. I'm beginning to accept that God really does work in our favor and will show Himself mighty in all of our situations, "He who is faithful will also do it." I'm dying to get in the mud already, I'm dying to work side by side with the Lord in the season He is bringing me into, I pray you have the same heart. Whatever it is God is leading you to, whatever new thing it is He is bringing to you, cast all your anxieties at His feet and place full reliance on Him. I love my God, and there is nothing I can say about where I am right now, except my two favorite words, "But God..."