Prepare Your Horse

Reading:   Proverbs 21

It was a difficult task today, choosing a verse that is, but I settled on...

PROVERBS 21:31

31 The horse is prepared against the day of battle: but safety is of the Lord. 

Here we are essentially being advised that it is prudent to prepare for battle (in all it's many forms).  Having a horse prepared is forethought and wise.  Arming ourselves with the proper weaponry is also essential as is the appropriate training in the tactics of combat and the strategies of war - these are all great enhancements and keys to ultimate success (on paper).  Then comes the monstrous, shattering, unavoidable...

"but"

...and how are we to read this caveat?  It's quite plain, yes, we are to prepare, but if God is forsaken in our haste to amass the best tools, training, etc., we are not prepared sufficiently.  Without the acknowledgement that The Lord is the ultimate shield we are setting ourselves up as Goliath and a pebble, propelled with the blessing of God, will bring us to the grave.

Regarding this subject, I read a fantastic address by Ezra Taft Benson, Our Priceless Heritage (General Conference 1976), where he discusses a patriotic picture that had great meaning for him.  I found the picture (America on Her Knees) and here is President Benson's very applicable quote...

In the 1940s while serving as the executive officer of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives in Washington, D.C., I saw in a Hilton Hotel a placard depicting Uncle Sam, representing America, on his knees in humility and prayer. Beneath the placard was the inscription, "Not beaten there by the hammer and sickle, but freely, responsibly, confidently. ... We need fear nothing or no one save God."  

That picture has stayed in my memory ever since: America on her knees in recognition that all our blessings come from God! America on her knees out of a desire to serve the God of this land by keeping His commandments! America on her knees, not driven there in capitulation to some despotic government, but on her knees freely, willingly, gratefully! This is the sovereign remedy to all of our problems and the preservation of our liberties. 

We have nothing to fear.  We are prepared and can hold our heads up high: but forgot not The Lord and be quick to kneel in humility for our safety lies with Him!

~Kipling