Friday, January 20, 2006

On Guard

The last couple of weeks have been extremely busy and I haven’t been able to post as much as I would have liked. Fortunately, I am glad to say that the busyness has come to an end for a while and you can look to see posts closer together in the future. For those of you who read my blog every chance you get, I am sorry that it has been so long since the last post. Thank you to all who prayed that I wouldn’t be too stressed with my workload; God has definitely been with me as the amount of work that I’ve had has been, at times, overwhelming. God Bless!

A long time ago, there was this cat that showed up in our backyard. Even though we already had two cats, my Mom, being the wonderful and caring person she is, decided that we were going to keep it. Out of the three cats that currently call our house home, Annabelle was the first, Bob was the second, and the third—the one that showed up in our backyard—was Sadie. One thing that you will notice if you watch Bob for a while is that he is very territorial (he’s the only male cat we have) and he doesn’t like it when Annabelle or Sadie get around him. Annabelle won’t put up with Bob’s shenanigans so Bob won’t mess with her much, but in Sadie’s case, she has to be on constant guard in order to know where Bob is. She knows that if she lets her guard down, Bob will corner her and pounce on her.

The life that Sadie has experienced in our household is one much like the life of Christians. When we first accept Christ we are placed in His family which brings feelings of love, joy and belonging. What many soon realize though is that the Christian lifestyle, as amazing as it is, brings times of trial and suffering as well. The truth is that as Christians, we are in a war with Satan and the demons that were cast out of Heaven with him. These times of trials are tough, but they are God’s way of giving us the opportunity to grow in our walk with Christ and to strengthen our reliance on Him. We must constantly be on guard against Satan’s ploys; he is always on the prowl in order to destroy our relationship with Christ. (John 10:10).

When Bob chases after Sadie and corners her, she will usually start to scream. It’s at these times that we run after Bob yelling and clapping so that he will leave Sadie alone. Because we are bigger, stronger and smarter than Bob, we are able to scare him away so that Sadie will be safe. The same is true with the wonderful God we serve! When we accept Christ and believe sincerely in our hearts that He rose from the dead after dying on the cross for our sins, we are guaranteed life in Heaven with Christ forever (John 5:24, Romans 8:1-2)! The power of Satan and all of his demons doesn’t even come close to being as powerful as God; it can’t really be compared!

Are you conscious of the fact that Satan wants so badly for you to fail? Do you feel that you have no chance of standing up against his evil plans? It is very important that as Christians we are aware of the fact that Satan wants to destroy our faith, but at the same time, there is no need for us to be afraid! We serve an amazing God who is more powerful than we can comprehend; even demons believe in Him and they tremble because of it (James 2:19)! Dive deep into God’s word and build your relationship with Him; the more you know about our Creator, the easier it will be to stay on guard against Satan’s attacks.

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