You Can Lead A Horse To Water But.............

1) "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."

2) "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.....but you give him salt to make him thirsty!"

For the past couple of weeks, I have been thinking a lot about this quote and for the past couple of weeks, I have also been getting bombarded with reoccurring thoughts about salt. I read the second quote a couple months ago and a few weeks later, I heard a message at a wedding about salt and just how important salt is in life whether it be the perfect spice to add to food or a great preservative or a valuable tool for trade and covenant making (Numbers 18:19). The importance of salt isn't too hard to understand and it has been important even in Old Testament times as seen in God's first instructions on how to prepare certain offerings whether it did or did not included salt. (Leviticus 2:13, Ezekiel 43:24 etc.) Basically salt, though its small and common, is truly fascinating. I'm sure a study of salt's history and uses wouldn't be a short one. The Bible itself has MANY references to salt...and I mean many. You can google something like "bible verses with salt" and you'll see the list- for such a small thing, it's pretty important.

I have always often just heard the first version of the quote which says, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." And I'll admit, I've thought of this quote in relation to evangelism before...and it is a bit discouraging. Sometimes one can feel like there is no point in continually leading the horse to water if he/she isn't gonna drink but this is where the Wisdom of God is revealed in my foolishness!

In Matthew 5:13, God says "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

Here is where I was reminded of the second version of the quote: "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.....but you give him salt to make him thirsty!"

My life is supposed to be that salt that causes the world to thirst for God- a relationship with Him and a knowledge of Him.

Being salt doesn't mean I can make or should make someone drink. That was never the point. My job is simply to be salt!....To add salt to that person's every day life so that he/she would THIRST for God! It sounds so simple yet how easily I forget this.

Call me a fanciful thinker but sometimes I wonder if God had this quote in mind when saying that the believers were to be the salt of the world. It's very true that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink- and that's okay because that's not my job! I wanna be salty. (<-- that's my lame pun on the phrase "salty".) I'm also learning that being salt really requires a step of faith in trusting God to carry out HIS purpose. It's not about how salty I am, it's about how good God is.

Just give the people salt so the people will THIRST for LIVING water! I've heard the first quote many times without the additional ending and I gotta say the addition, though it is so simple, has made a great difference. Isn't God's wisdom so marvelous that He (purposefully and knowingly) uses simple things like salt as a picture of the believer's role in the world?

"Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?" 1 Corinthians 1:20

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." 1 Corinthians 1:18