Abundance In The Bush - Country Devotions PART 2Sample

Cowboy Up

You’ve gotta be tough to ride bulls and as fit as a mallee bull. It’s called the toughest sport on dirt for good reason. It’s an adrenaline packed, extreme sport where cowboys get bloodied, bruised and broken but they get out there and give it another and another go – hence the term ‘cowboy up.’

You also learn to cowboy up when you’re mustering. It’s nothing to return from a muster worse for wear. I’ve seen a rider chasing cattle, gallop into barbed wire in the growing dark and be thankful it tore his leg and not his horse.

Another friend knew she’d broken her arm after smashing into a rail during a muster, but she brought the cattle in before giving it any attention. After a hard fall off a bucking horse, I lay on the ground unable to move, gritting my teeth thinking, ‘I’ve got to get back on that horse!’ Adrenaline pumps us full of energy and gives us the umph to ‘cowboy up’, but what about when the adrenaline has flat lined? Where do we source our strength then?

If you belong to Jesus Christ, the same power that raised Him from the dead lives in you! That’s a lot of ‘cowboy up’! God’s presence within us means His power within us is inexhaustible. Ephesians 1:19-20 in The Message Bible puts it this way, “...oh, the utter extravagance of his work in us who trust him - endless energy, boundless strength! All this energy issues from Christ.”

Thank You Father, that You are the source for our encouragement and endurance; therefore we have what it takes to ‘cowboy up’ each day. Amen.