White Knuckles on the Back of the Pew

"And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew dialect, 'Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads'" (Acts 26:14)

We've all seen it, beloved, if we've ever stood next to anyone in church during the altar call. You can always tell those with whom the Spirit of God may be dealing because they develop a syndrome that evangelists from my boyhood days used to call "white knuckles." The term came from the practice of gripping the pew in front of you while you listened to the preacher's invitation for you to make a decision for Christ. Usually those "white knuckles" indicated that you were doing your best not to step out and yield yourself to His will for your life!

Did you know that Saul of Tarsus himself experienced his own version of "white knuckles on the back of the pew," beloved? When Jesus knocked him to the ground on the Damascus road, Paul later reported that the Master said to him, 'It is hard for you to kick against the goads." A "goad" was a stick sharpened on one end and often covered with metal. The animal driver would walk beside the ox and would as needed "jab" the hapless animal in the rump if he should slow down or refuse to pull the load. To "kick against the goads," then, was the action of that stubborn animal continually refusing to yield to it and just do the work he was set into the traces to do.

So what did Jesus mean when He addressed these words intended for animals to a man, to Saul of Tarsus? For the one who does not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, it refers primarily to resisting the prompting of the Holy Spirit to walk the path that leads to redemption. Saul thought that he was on the way to Damascus to arrest more Christians and hopefully to bring to an end fledgling Christianity, but God had put him on that road for an entirely different reason. Saul was on the Damascus road to meet Jesus Christ face to face! The Spirit of God had clearly been at work in this man's heart for some time, yet he continued every day to "kick against the goads." It was only when God put him on his face with a mouthful of dust that Saul relented and asked (Acts 22:10), "What shall I do, Lord?" And the rest, as they say, is history!

For you and me today as followers of Jesus Christ, beloved, to "kick against the goads" is to resist the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives in any way whatsoever. It is to grip the back of the pew so hard that our knuckles turn white as we choose for ourselves and refuse to bend our will to His divine purpose. It is, finally, to refuse to the Lord Jesus Christ the sovereign right that He has to rule over us. For so many professing Christians today, then, to be "saved" means little more than that they are forgiven and on their way to heaven, but that in the meantime they are free to go their own way, make their own choices, and do their own thing. It is to them as if God has saved them, patted them on the head like good little children, and then sent them out into the "backyard" of this world to play until He calls them for supper - the marriage supper of the Lamb!

The stubborn ox of Paul's day found life so much easier when he simply accepted his place in the traces and carried out what his master had given to him to do. He avoided the painful "goad" when he chose to do things his master's way! And much more like that stubborn ox than we care to admit, we too find that life is not only so much better, but that we are far more effective in living for Christ whenever we too "accept the traces" of His Lordship over us. Does God carry a big "goad"? You bet! And He is not afraid to use it when we force His hand.

"All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Hebrews 12:11)

So it is hard for us to kick against the goads! And it is pointless as well. It accomplishes nothing in our lives but to cause us to get in God's way and to endanger our walk with Him and to hinder His kingdom's purpose in and through our lives. Look down at your hands right now, beloved. See any "white knuckles"? Let go! Learn to simply yield yourself to the Master's gentle hand and go wherever He leads.

Ron