For the ones that know and love me, they know I am the type of person who says what I want, when I want. I will speak the ruthless and uncensored truth, and it won’t matter how much it hurts a person’s feelings. For those who are cheering that idea, it’s really not a good thing. Why? Well if we are looking to win people to Christ, then our behavior has to reflect His. So over the years, I have had to learn to be more careful with my words and behavior.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
You gotta love Paul the Apostle. The most awesome letters about Christian behavior coming from a guy who used to murder Christians. He actually held the coats of the people who went to stone the first martyr, Stephen. You can read about that in the book of Acts. Anyway, Paul really understood what it meant to turn yourself around from your old ways and start living for Christ and winning others for Christ. That’s why he was able to say in his letter he was running the race with certainty and fighting with connecting blows (when you fight the air you are either shadow boxing or missing). But here is the more important part, he also walked with discipline.
There are things we may want to do and say to people that, while true, will cause more harm than good. In my case, when someone comes at my family or those I care for with hostility, I want to go in guns blazing ready for a physical altercation. Or if someone says something to offend me or hurt them, I want to tear them down with their own actions with my words. This is undisciplined behavior and again, sometimes quite harmful.
In riding horses, a bridle is used to direct the horse. There are bridles with a bit and bridles without. The point of all this is that a bridle, bitless or not, maintains discipline for the animal to stay on the path directed by the rider. Personally, I can be both. I can go without a bit because I can hold my tongue when it comes to certain situations, but then there are days when I need to have that bit in, because everything I say will be ruthless and hurtful. I don’t want to push anyone away from the Lord or through my behavior misrepresent Him, so having the bit and bridle on, is not a bad thing. So here is the question, where it comes to your behavior in Christ, what kind of a horse are you?
Java with Jesus 