Devotionals

Making a Break
Making a Break
(Author Unknown)

A Scottish preacher named John McNeill liked to tell about an eagle that had been captured when it was quite young. The farmer who snared the bird put a restraint on it so it couldn't fly, and then he turned it loose to roam the barnyard. It wasn't long till the eagle began to act like the chickens, scratching and pecking at the ground. This bird that once soared high in the air seemed satisfied to live the barnyard life of a chicken.

The day the farmer received a visit from a shepherd who came down from the mountains where the eagles lived. Seeing the eagle, the shepherd said to the farmer, "What a shame to keep that bird hobbled here in your barnyard! Why don't you let it go?" The farmer agreed, so they cut off the restraint. But the eagle continued to wander around, scratching and pecking as before.

The shepherd picked it up and set it on a high stone wall. For the first time in months, the eagle saw the grand expanse of blue sky and the glowing sun. Then it spread its wings and with a leap soared off into a tremendous spiral flight, up and up and up. At last it was acting like an eagle again.

Like the eagle, if you're going to be free to soar and do what your Maker intended, you have to make a break with the barnyard. You cannot live in both places.

Have you made your break with the barnyard? Have you severed allegiance to the life of futility in sin? Or are you still living there, trying to soar one day, but living the next tethered and pecking with the chickens?

"Come out from their midst and be separate,' says the Lord. 'And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you.' (2 Corinthians 6:17)

Davidwayne Lackey 08/09/2015 20:36