Faithbase

There's a guy that I follow on social media that you might have seen before, you're familiar with, and he's a horse wrangler. He runs a school, and he shares a lot of wisdom and life lessons that he's learned through his life and through horsemanship. And the other day he was sharing a story, and I'll try and make it quick. He was saying how there were some riders that were at a camp, and there were riders coming down a mountain, and it was starting to storm, and they were trying to make their way back before nightfall. And unfortunately, they weren't able to. They got caught in the storm, and they found themselves in a thicket, right, in these thorns where they couldn't go any further. And what they decided to do was get off and go on foot. So they got off their horses, they got their saddles, they left the horses there in the thicket, they made their way back down to camp. And he was telling the story and explaining how when you hear that, you might think, well, that doesn't sound like the right thing to do. Why would you leave your horses alone in the thicket? And he went on to explain that it was, in fact, the right thing to do. And the reason was because horses are very keen and instinctive on being able to find their way back to camp only when they don't have a rider or a saddle on them. And sure enough, they woke up the next morning, and the horses were back there at camp. And I love this story, and it really made me think about life and being led by the Holy Spirit. And that oftentimes in life, when we are in control, we're trying to control the situation, we find ourselves in a thicket, right, where we can't move, we can't go any forward, but go forward anymore. But it's when we release control, just like the horses were released of the control of the rider and the saddle. When we release our control and rely on the Holy Spirit, we are led and guided in the direction that we are to go. And in Psalms 143 10, it reads, teach me to do your will for you are my God. May your good spirit lead me on level ground. It is the Holy Spirit, the good spirit that leads us in the direction we are to go when we let go of our control, and we rely on the Holy Spirit. So I wanted to encourage you with that story and with that verse that if you find yourself going up against something that you're not able to move forward, ask yourself, am I in control? How can I release control? And how can I then be led by the Holy Spirit? Because it is his good spirit that will lead you on level ground. So let us lean into that and be led by the Holy Spirit today.