The Prairie Chicken and the Eagle

 

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint.                                                                                                                     

Isaiah 40:31 (New Living Translation)

There once was a mother eagle who dropped her unhatched egg into the nest of a prairie chicken. After a time, the egg hatched, and the eaglet grew up fully believing that she was a prairie chicken. How could she have known any better? She copied her prairie chicken mother and siblings in all their movements. To feed herself, she scratched in the dirt for worms and grubs as all prairie chickens do. One would never know by her behavior that she was not a prairie chicken although she looked nothing like the rest of her family.

One day, while scratching for worms with the rest of the prairie chickens, she turned her eyes toward the heavens. Her heart filled with unexplainable rapture and a strange longing as she watched an eagle soar on the wind.

She dared to voice her admiration of the eagle out loud to the rest of the group.

“Well, of course, we all know that the eagle soars! But you are just a prairie chicken. Prairie chickens do not fly and never will. Don’t even think about it.”

The eagle, who thought she was a prairie chicken, believed what was told to her. She stifled the strange longing inside of her and never let herself wonder again why she must stay on the ground with the other prairie chickens.

Girlfriends, we were made for more than living for seventy or eighty years and then dying. You were meant to soar like the eagle, empowered by Jesus Christ. Have you allowed what others have said to stifle your God-given purpose? There is only One Person we need to please–the One who died to give us the right to soar.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.   John 10:10 (New King James Version)

Are you living the abundant life, my sweet sister? Do you look at someone else and see them soaring but have convinced yourself that you are only a prairie chicken? You were made uniquely and wonderfully. In fact, you were chosen to bring your King great glory in a way that will set your heart soaring if you could only believe it to be the truth. It’s time to take back stolen ground from the enemy, to allow him to fall into the pit that he has dug for us. Whose voice is so loud that it drowns out the promises of God that He has said over your life?

You are no prairie chicken. It’s time to stop digging for those worms in the mud. Do you know why we have that inner knowledge that there is more to this life than what we are currently living? Because our God made us to thrive in this life, not just survive. Spread your wings, sweet sister, and soar on the wind. With our trust in Christ, we can walk when we used to faint and run where we used to get weary. What we were once convinced of would surely kill us is where we can see God’s refining hand most clearly. We are daughters of the Most High King. Let’s start believing that instead of the voices around us.

Jesus, there can be a huge disconnect between knowing Your promises and believing Your promises for me. Strengthen these feeble hands, steady the knees that give way (Isaiah 35:3). I would rather try to soar and fail than stay on the ground and miss my purpose that You have so carefully planned for me. You are God, my loving God. Help me, Jesus, help me.