Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

"But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."¹

Today's Daily Encounter is from the book, Broken Chains, by Doug Batchelor.

A naturalist visiting a farm one day was surprised to see a beautiful eagle in the farmer's chicken coop. Befuddled, he asked, "Why in the world is that eagle living with chickens?"

"Well," answered the farmer, "I found an abandoned eagle's egg one day and laid it in the coop, and a chicken adopted it and raised the creature after it hatched. It doesn't know any better; it thinks it's a chicken." The eagle was even pecking at grain and strutting awkwardly in circles.

"Doesn't it ever try to fly out of there?" asked the naturalist, noticing that the bird never lifted its gaze. "No," said the farmer, "I doubt it even knows what it means to fly."

The naturalist asked to take the eagle a few days for experiments, and the farmer agreed. The scientist placed the eagle on a fence and pushed it off, bellowing, "Fly!" But the bird just fell to the ground and started pecking. He then climbed to the top of a hayloft and did the same thing, but the frightened bird just shrieked and fluttered ungraciously to the barnyard, where it resumed its strutting.

Finally, the naturalist took the docile bird away from the environment to which it had grown accustomed, driving to the highest butte in the county. After a lengthy and sweaty climb to the hillcrest with the bird tucked under his arm, he peered over the edge and then spoke gently: "You were born to soar. It is better that you die here today on the rocks below than live the rest of your life being a chicken. It's not what you are."

Then, with its keen eyesight, the confused bird spotted another eagle soaring on the currents high above the bluff, and a yearning was kindled within it. The naturalist threw the majestic beast up and over the edge, crying out, "Fly! Fly! Fly!"

The eagle began to tumble toward the rocks below, but then it opened its seven-foot span of wings and, with a mighty screech, instinctively began to flap them. Soon it was gliding gracefully, climbing in ever-higher spirals on unseen thermals into the blue sky. Eventually, the mighty eagle disappeared into the glare of the morning sun. The bird had become what it was born to be.²

Have you discovered your God-given purpose and potentialâ€"and have become or are becoming all that you were born to be?

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to discover my God-given life purpose and potential and become all that You have envisioned for me to be and do. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

Note: Be sure to check You Can't Fly With a Broken Wing at www.actscom.com/store.

1. Isaiah 40:31 (NIV).
2. Doug Batchelor, Broken Chains, Pacific Press, 2004. Cited in WITandWISDOM, Richard Wimer. http://www.witandwisdom.org/.

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