Goad Kicking

Daily Reading: Acts 26

Scripture Focus: It is hard for you to kick against the goads. (Acts 26.14)

Devotional Thought: Jesus confronted the rebellious Paul: “It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”  Goads were what we would call cattle-prods today: sticks with sharp iron points.  Under normal circumstances, farmers would use goads to gently spur and steer the oxen which were pulling carts or plows.  In cases where an ox kicked back against the goad, the animal would experience more pain than the gentle prodding of the goad. 

Paul had been kicking against the goads.  Before Paul had met Jesus, God had been speaking to his heart. Paul, however, had apparently resisted God’s gentle, persistent overtures. It made life hard for him.

God goads us in many ways.  Sometimes he does it by allowing negative things to happen to us.  He may not cause the hurt, but he uses it to direct our thoughts to finding a solution – him!  Sometimes he does it in our circumstances.  We find that things keep happening to cause us to go a certain direction, a direction we hadn’t planned on going.  Sometimes God allows our sinfulness to “catch up to us” with its inevitable consequences.  We’ve heard the expression, every action has a reaction.  Our sins have consequences, and though we may escape them temporarily, eventually they catch up to us.  In all these things and at other times as well, we can experience the convicting power of the Holy Spirit (see John 16.8).  Human nature is such that we often find ourselves kicking against these goads.  We don’t want to go the direction God wants us to go, so we kick. 

How about you?  Are you kicking against the goads?  Is God trying to get you to go a certain way, but you are resisting him?  It’s hard, isn’t it?

Prayer: "Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling..."  Help me to heed your calls while they are soft and tender, O Lord, and not to kick against the goads.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 75.1-5

1 We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds.

2 "At the set time that I appoint I will judge with equity.

3 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah

4 I say to the boastful, 'Do not boast,' and to the wicked, 'Do not lift up your horn;

5 do not lift up your horn on high, or speak with haughty neck.'"