14 ….It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ (Acts 24:14b)

A goad is a long rod with a sharp end that is used to prick an animal to move, to kick against it would generally be to inflict more pain upon the animal. Unfortunately, we are the animal that kicks against the goad most often.

Why would we make life harder? Is it not difficult enough on its own? Yet, we do. We make it harder by disobeying God in so many ways every day. We may not be like Saul from our passage, seeking to persecute others, but we may disobey in other small ways.

The hardest thing in the world to change is a bad habit. We do not cultivate bad habits because do not know better. We cultivate them because, in some way, they fill some void or assuage a a pain, or maybe they create a distraction from our hectic world.

We know better but we kick against the goad.

And like the animals the goad has been used with we must get uncomfortable enough to make true and lasting change.

What goad are you kicking against today? Have you done the work of taking an inventory of the good and bad in your life? Do you seek to make lasting change? Do you know how?

I think that last question is the hardest. I think we know all too well what we are kicking against. I think knowing how to change that behavior is what is most challenging. But the science here is pretty well known and clear. There has to be two things involved; our desire for change and something positive to replace the negative.

What more positive motivation can we have than to please God?