In 2024, the Federal Bureau of Land Management estimated there were 73,000 wild horses and burros living on public lands in the Western United States.

If you were to corral all of these beautiful animals at the same time and check each one up close, you’d notice one similar characteristic: None would be wearing a bridle. These are untrained, non-domesticated animals that yield only to their own instincts and desires. From that perspective, they are indeed wild. They fill their days eating, running with the wind, fighting for dominance, and surviving when the weather turns brutal.

Since ancient times (Psalm 32:9), the bridle has been the symbol of man’s domestication of wild horses—at least those horses carrying a rider. Up until the mid-twentieth century, horses were brought into submission using fear, punishment, pain, and exhaustion. In short, it was a matter of bending the horse’s will to that of its owner. But in the mid-twentieth century, the practice of “natural horsemanship” was revived by so-called “horse whisperers” like Monty Roberts—using gentleness and trust to create a bond between horse and human.

The end result of both methods is the same—obedience leading to service—but natural horsemanship is much less stressful on both horses and humans. Proponents of natural horsemanship study the forms of communication horses use in the wild, along with their herd behaviors and instincts, to get them to respond to similar cues when being domesticated. These trainers learn to “speak horse” to their new wild friends and lead them in directions that correspond to their natural inclinations.

The Unbridled Life

Can you tell where I’m going with this “wild horse” illustration? Stay with me and let’s see where this takes us.

My point: Human beings in their natural state lead an unbridled life. To use the distinction I made between wild and feral horses, we are actually the latter as a species. We were born into the most ideal, domesticated environment possible: the Garden of Eden. There was nothing wild about us. Our first parents lived in total obedience to the Father, in whose image they were created...until they didn’t.

You probably know the story. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they were ousted from the Garden and thrust into the wilds of an untamed earth. They weren’t created wild. They were created as part of God’s household (kingdom) on earth. But ever since that tragic day, humanity has been reproducing an untamed, unbridled, formerly-domesticated population.

What has the unbridled life been like for humanity over these millennia? Frankly, instead of walking peacefully alongside God we’ve been bucking and biting our way into trouble ever since our first parents left Eden. Think about it: wars, hunger, refugees, terrorism, environmental pollution, crimes in high and low places, the marriage and family in disarray. And that’s only at the national level. Individually, we are eating and stressing our way toward an early grave. Our lives look little like what we imagine life in Eden was like.

Clearly, the unbridled human life has not been as peaceful, harmonious, and fruitful as God intended it to be. Is a “bridled” life possible? What is the cure for the unbridled life?

The Bridled Life

Even before Adam and Eve left the Garden, God told them that sin would be conquered (Genesis 3:15). Man would be brought back into relationship with God. That is the story of the Bible. One day in eternity, God’s family will live a bridled life, walking in perfect concert with God as we were intended to do in the beginning. But what about now? Is a bridled life possible before we get to heaven? The answer is, of course, yes!

But who are the unbridled? The unbridled are those who are living life under their own direction and power instead of God’s. And they are one of two types: non-Christians who have never entered a relationship with God and Christians who have perhaps wandered away or who struggle to give up control of their lives to God. In either case, their lives bear the traits of unbridled living to one degree or another.

The difference a bridled life makes is easy to illustrate: Jesus Christ Himself. Over and over in the Gospel of John, Jesus says things like this: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38; see also 4:34; 5:19, 30; 7:28-29, and more). No one would say that Jesus Christ led an unhappy, restricted, or unfulfilled life as a bridled person. Instead, the opposite is true. He found complete fulfillment by accomplishing what God created Him to do.

And the same can be true of us when we yield our lives to God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul lists nine traits of those who are bridled by the love of God: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). Does that sound like an unhappy, restricted, or unfulfilled person? Not at all! That is a person who is experiencing the same life Jesus Christ experienced by being filled with the Holy Spirit.

Putting on the Bridle

How would you describe your life—bridled by the Holy Spirit or unbridled? Perhaps you have insisted on being wild and free, running the range at will, and have never submitted your life to the gentle leadership of Christ and His Spirit. Or perhaps you are a Christian who longs to return to the loving leadership of Christ. Perhaps you have known the fruit of the Spirit in the past and want to enjoy that fruit again.

In either case, the grace of God opens the gate to you and invites you to come in. There is forgiveness for all who want to put on the bridle of God’s love and be led in His gentle ways. Think what the bridled life could mean to you:

            •Love: unconditional love that you can share with others.

            •Joy: deep-seated contentment in the midst of life’s circumstances.

            •Peace: the constant assurance that your bridle is in God’s hand.

            •Longsuffering: the ability to endure and stay on the wisest path.

            •Kindness: compassion toward others that you never felt before.

            •Goodness: the desire to live a righteous life pleasing to God.

            •Faithfulness: living a life of loyalty to eternal values.

            •Gentleness: learning to respond to life with humility and awareness.

•Self-control: no longer being subject to the whims and impulses of the unbridled life.

Is this the kind of life we read about in today’s daily headlines? Not usually. It is because far too many are living a life unbridled by the power of the Holy Spirit. But it is a life imminently available to all who desire it.

There may have been a revival of more gentle and humane ways of getting a bridle on a wild horse, but gentleness has always been God’s way. Those who exchange the unbridled life for a life bridled by the love of God find they have gained a gentle, forgiving, and compassionate Master. No longer do they fight against being led. No longer do they resist being cared for and nurtured. Instead, they realize they have been given a fulfilling present and a promised future that will last forever.

Which is more appealing—bridled or unbridled? Think of the opposite of the nine traits of the Holy Spirit mentioned above (hate, unrest, anger, impatience, and so on). Why would anyone choose a life characterized by wild, unbridled human flesh over a life empowered by the Holy Spirit? Come in from the wild and yield to God’s Spirit today.