Time to Trade Your Horse!

The horse holds a place of importance in history as a powerhouse of our existence. From pulling plows through waiting fields and wagons of travelers to a new frontier, to providing leisure enjoyment, the horse must have seemed irreplaceable to those who depended on the animal. Until the Tin Lizzie…

Henry Ford was her creator, and she was a beauty. His Model T, or Tin Lizzie, was first sold in October of 1908. Boasting a 20 horse-power engine that got 20 miles to the gallon of gasoline, the motor car opened a whole new world by making travel available to the average man through the purchase of this affordable automobile. The time had come to trade in the horse as a means of mobility.

Not everyone was keen on trading in the trusted horse for this new four-wheeled idea in 1908, and Mr. Ford was not the first man to meet with the challenge of a new idea.  When Alexander Winton founded the Winton Motor Carriage Company in 1896, he sold a total of 4 cars that year! He was ridiculed as a fool “fiddling with a buggy that will run without being hitched to a horse.” 

Letting go of something that works in order to have the better thing often brings feelings of fear and resistance. This is true in the life of the Christian when we begin our journey of sanctification. It is foreign to our carnal nature to trade in a plan that we control to give God first place in our life. We must be willing to give up control of our own life and trust ourselves into the Hands of the most trustworthy One. And although walking this new path of uncertainty can be a frightening move, in the end it will prove to be the perfect way for us to take because of God’s promise:

But for good men the path is not uphill and rough! God does not give them a rough and treacherous path but smooths the road before them.  O Lord, we love to do your will! Our hearts’ desire is to glorify your name. Isaiah 26: 7-8

God will keep His promise to those who love and choose His will and in the end, their new road will lead to joy and peace in this life, and eternity with Him. What we give up now will pale in comparison with God’s rewards for us, and they will last forever.