Come & See: 10 Cowboy Devotions to Strengthen Your Ride With ChristSample

Gatherin' Mavericks

When Jesus left there, He saw a guy named Matthew sitting at the Tax Collector’s shack. “Come on,” He told him and Matthew left everything right there and went with Him. Jesus went to Matthew’s house and supped with him. A lot of Matthew’s friends, mostly outlaws and politicians who were crooked, came and ate with them and Jesus’s hands. When the Religious-Know-It-Alls (Pharisees) seen this, they asked Jesus’s cowboys, “Why does your trail boss eat with outlaws and no-accounts?” Jesus heard ’em and said, “The healthy cattle don’t need a Vet, the sick ones do. You need to head off and ponder what this means: ‘I want mercy, not sacrifice.’ Because I haven’t come to round up the gentle cattle, but I have come to gather the mavericks.” Matthew 9:9–13

Anyone who can sit on a horse without falling off can gather cattle.

All you do is take several people, get on the other side of the cattle, and push them toward the pen. But there always seems to be that one cow, or one calf (or both), that refuse to cooperate. They’ll jump fences, and many times we end up roping them. That’s something 99 percent of the world cannot do.

When first-time cowboys are asked how many cattle they gathered, they usually stick their chests out and say, “We gathered ninety-nine.”

Then, when the old hands are asked the same question, they smile and say, “Just one.”

Jesus is an old hand. Better yet, He’s the Top Hand. He didn’t come down here to trail-ride behind a bunch of compliant cattle. He came to rope and doctor the ornery ones that needed saving, not the ones headed to the gate already.

This devotional is for the ornery ones. It’s for the ones who are brushed up, and most of the time, bad-hurt by something and someone. It’s for you—the wild cowboys and cowgirls who are jumping fences or for those willing to work and care for the fence jumpers.

Either one you happen to be, I'm glad we found you.

Cowboy Call:

When’s the last time you did something crazy for God? When was the last time you bucked the system and followed Jesus no matter the cost? How long will you wait before you do it again?