Are You Kicking Against The Goads?

We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice speaking to me in Aramaic, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’  Acts 26:14

Saul was leading the war against Christ.  He wanted to stomp out The Way as much as anyone else.  On his way to Damascus to hunt down Christians, Christ appeared and confronted Paul in a vision.  Jesus said, "Why are you persecuting me?  It is hard for you to kick against the goads."

What is a goad?  It is a spiked stick used for driving cattle.  To kick against the goad is to resist the leadership of the driver.  It is when the cow ignores the goad and instead chooses to go its own way.  When a cow submits to the driver, the driver is very gentle; he doesn't even need the goad.  But the more a cow resists driver, the more the driver has to apply to goad, and the more painful it is for the cow.

We kick against the goads when we ignore God's word and go our own way; when we deliberately disobey the Lord; when we choose sin instead of submission, disobedience rather than devotion, self-rule instead of surrender. 

But it is hard to kick against the goad.  When we rebel against God, He lovingly disciplines us to get us back in line.  At first, the discipline is gentle.  But the more we resist, the more painful the goads.  Christ will continue to discipline you, turning up the heat more and more until you return to Him.  When you resist God's rule, you wreck your life. 

Are you running from God?  Are you resisting His complete and total authority in your life?  Is there an area of your life that you are keeping from God?  It is hard to kick against the goads.

"Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as the Messiah."  Acts 3:19-20