Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Proverbs chapter 14 verse 4 where there are no oxen the manger is clean

but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox."

That's not a great proverb.

Did you catch what it's saying?

Let me say it again, and then I'll explain it, but I think it'll be obvious.

Just make sure, listen closely.

Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean,

but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.

Like who would like a clean manger?

Who wants to walk into a dirty, smelly manger? And yet a clean manger is only possible when there are no oxen.

And as soon as you have an ox, you'll have a really dirty manger.

But you'll also have abundant crops whereas with a clean manger you'd have no

crops in the picture there is obviously there would still be crops in the field

but this passage is talking about the role that oxen play

and bringing in the abundance of the crops.

And all of this to say, Parn 14-4 is a reminder to us that getting to abundant crops or getting

to abundant fruit in our life won't'll always be clean. It will oftentimes involve a mess, but that mess can lead to

fruit far beyond what you could ever experience if everything was nice and tidy.

Can you think of examples of that in your life or something was hard or complicated challenging but in the end it

led to something so great and wonderful that made all the challenges and all the hard worth it.

I can think of so many things like that in my life.

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