Honey, The Cows Won't Let Me Sleep!

The other afternoon I was taking the dogs out for a little break and I noticed a big truck and trailer drive into the pasture. Later the same truck drove out with a load of cows. I didn’t give it much thought until that night when I couldn’t sleep for the bellowing. What I thought was a load of cows for the sale barn turned out to be a load of calves being taken to another pasture for weaning.

If you’ve ever lived on a cattle ranch/farm you might know the sound I’m talking about. It is a sorrowful groan that begins in the belly intensifying as it travels up through the cow and out the mouth splitting the stillness of the night, echoing through the pasture, bouncing off barns, fence posts, and trees. It is the deep mournful calling of a mother for her missing baby.

Not able to sleep, I grabbed my Bible and a cup of coffee. I love the writings of Paul and have been reading a bit in Ephesians as our Wednesday night Bible study is about the armor of God from chapter 6. However, this is what I happened to read.

Ephesians 4:21-32 “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22) that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23) and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24) and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 25) Therefore, putting away lying, ‘Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,’ for we are members of one another. 26) ‘Be angry, and do not sin.’ Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, 27)nor give place to the devil 28)Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good that he may have something to give him who has need. 29) Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. 30) And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31) Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice 32) and be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. ~NKJ

Did you see it? Verse 30? “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Right in the middle of the how to live section….do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. Now if you read just this partial list you know that it is humanly impossible to live the way Paul describes in the book of Ephesians. But here he warns us…do it and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

When we are sincere in our love for and devotion to the Lord, when we are renewed in Spirit each day, through prayer, through reading and meditating upon His Word…seeking His will, His way…the Holy Spirit aides us in right living…it is our second nature for our first nature is truly the sin-nature of man brought upon us by Adam and Eve. It is what we wrestle with. Eph. 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age.” ~NKJ

If we do not gird ourselves for the day, each and every day, we leave ourselves susceptible and the sin nature, our carnal man, will take control before we even know it. If left unchecked…we will be right back to where we began, not walking with Him, not talking to Him, not telling others of Him, and we grieve the Spirit. Galatians 5:25 “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” ~NIV

When we move away from Him, He calls to us much like those cows calling for their babies. Unlike the calves we are no more than a step away, one tear, one groan, one whisper, one bended-knee away; one step is all it takes.

Is he calling you to come back to Him?

Come home, come home,
You who are weary, come home;
Earnestly, tenderly, Jesus is calling,
Calling, O sinner, come home!
Softly and Tenderly lyrics by Will L. Thompson

*photo credit - taken from Flicker