A horse is made to run!

The Horse and His Boy, the third book of C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia series, is a story about a horse named Bree.  Bree was born a free horse but was captured as a babe and became a slave for most of his life.  He had a cruel master that made him work by inflicting pain and fear.  Later, Bree was freed from the old master.  But when the familiar pain and fear were gone he lost all motivation to work hard; he drifted along without aim or passion, neither realizing his true nature nor the purpose that he was born for.  That is until Aslan, the Good Lion, chased him--even scratching him superficially--so as to teach him to run hard again as a free horse.

Christians are like Bree.  Before we experienced freedom in Christ, we were under the slave masters of this world, working and toiling for all the wrong reasons: pride, lust, greed and fears of all kinds...things that ultimately destroy us.  When Christ comes into our hearts releasing us from our old master(s) we also lose the old motivations to work hard.  We gain a choice: should we run hard for our new master or should we just coast along?

A horse is made to run, and man is made to work.  Before the fall in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had jobs too.  And Christ is at work to help us work as free people.

Jesus is a good master.  As with Bree, He may sometimes use discipline to push us forward.  But unlike the old earthly masters, He never acts in a way that will destroy us.  Scripture tells us that whatever He demands from us He also gives us the where-with-all to accomplish it.