Stubborn as a Mule

March 10

Numbers 3

Psalm 32:8-11

Proverbs 7:21-23

Mark 10:32-52

Stubborn as a Mule

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My loving eye on you.  Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”  Psalm 32:8-9 NIV

God is patient and gracious with me.  He gently instructs me and teaches me.  He gives me counsel and He watches over me.  Unfortunately, too often I act like the mule who has no understanding.  I try to go my own way instead of listening to His wise instruction.  I pull and fight on the reins instead of willingly submitting to His leading.  Inevitably, I get myself in trouble and figure out that His way really was best.  After a while, the mule will submit to the bit and do what it is told.  But the next day, it will resist again, try to go its own way, and will have to be forced to obey.  How like the mule I am.  I go along my own way, following my plans and doing what I think is best.  Then I get myself in trouble and realize I should have listened to His still, small voice guiding me.  I repent and submit to Him for a time, but then I start thinking I know what I am doing and so I decide to go my own way again.  It is a vicious cycle.  I don’t want to be like the stubborn, ignorant mule, but I find myself repeating the pattern over and over. 

The only way to avoid this destructive tendency is to stay in constant communication with God.  When I am spending time with Him daily, seeking His face and listening for and to His voice, I am much less likely to go my own way.  I am more like the prophet Isaiah who wrote in Isaiah 30:21, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it.” (NIV) I hear and heed His voice.