Freedom's Ring Stables

In May we met with Red. Red is a lovely Thoroughbred with quite a bit of experience, but he is coming out of almost two years off. His muscle tone is low, and he is questioning whether he actually has to put in the work necessary to rebuild muscle, as well as his relationship with his rider. With Red, diligence is the key. Whether you are building a relationship between you and your spouse, your kids, your horse or your God, relationships require diligence. Building muscle is the same way- it seems that anything we are “building”, requires diligence.

It’s easy to feel as if building a relationship with God is just too hard. It’s tiring, life is distracting, and we never seem to get anywhere with it anyway. 2 Tim 2:15 says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.” It is the daily, diligent exercise of our spiritual muscles, consistently spending time in the word, in prayer, in meditation, putting on of the armor of God daily. This is what builds the “faithfulness” the Bible speaks of so constantly that can build a relationship with God and can teach us to see Him with greater and greater love every day.

The first month (April 2019) we met at HHH for our horse-based bible discussions, we met with young Panda. With Panda, we learned how easy it is as a believer to become complacient in our faith. There comes a point in our walk with Christ, that simply belonging to Christ is not enough. We have to go farther than just being a "good Christian", and open up ALL areas of our life to His direct control. That's painful. It's not what we think we want. We fight and kick to control everything ourselves, to be able to choose our own way of doing things. "Here, God, I'm doing what I've decided You want me to do." We want to do good on our own, our way. But if we want a real realationship with God, we can't go that route, because its actually walling God away. We don't want to give our whole hearts, but it's only though surrendering every part of our lives to God that we can have real freedom.

Ps 119:45 "And I shall walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts."

The second month, May 2019, we met with Danny. Born in the wild, Danny found a trainer young and discovered the freedom we've discussed in giving his will over to a higher authority. Things have been easy at this point in his life, and now he is ready for more and bigger challenges. As more is required of him his response is "Here I am." He is accepting of the call to give more, to stretch and grow. As he continues in this new and exciting call in his life, he may discover he doesn't like the feel of the difficulties and road-blocks ahead of him, and he may want to rebel. Or like Samuel will he respond by growing in his "faith" and relationship with his trainer? When the pressures of life hit, our instincts are usually to panic, or find someone to blame, or frantically search for happier circumstances. But hopefully we can find the maturity to cling to our relationship with God, trust His reasons, rely on His wisdom and guidance, and USE that crisis to learn and build your relationship with Him. Easy, right? Hmn. Like Jacob wresling with the angel, (Gen. 32) it may be painful, but as we cling to our relationship with God, He has so many blessings awaiting us! It is so very worth the struggle.

1 Samuel 3:10b "And Samuel said, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'"

Just a thought- As a trainer, I don't go out and about, finding horses who need me and starting to train. I have to wait until the owner brings them to me. If you have a problem horse, you have to take the step and take the horse to the trainer in order to address the problem. The trainer can only help if the horse is brought to him.

However, if we are the problem- a problem life, even one of unbelief- we have a gracious and loving God who will pursue us and teach us before we even know Him.

Lesson? Even if the Trainer hasn't drawn us in yet, all of us are already within His reach. He wants us to reach out to Him, to allow Him to help, but He is already there. Speaking. Calling. Preparing us to know Him, or know Him better.

"Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with Me,"

Revelation 3:20