It is not often while visiting someone I keep changing chairs. Actually, it only happened once. The home, where I was making a pastoral visit, reeked with the smell of cats. My nostrils were assaulted the moment the door was opened to welcome me inside. The décor was fascinating. Right in the middle of the room where we sat was a well used cat-litter box filled with what appeared to be breaded cutlets. One of the cats that should have been named Lucifer never stopped stalking me. It craftily slunk along the top of the claw-shredded sofa positioning itself for, what I was convinced, a murderous leap onto my face; thus the reason for my continual moving from chair to chair. Each move only challenged the cat to reposition itself for a new way to bring about my demise. When I arrived home that evening my wife crunched up her nose and said, “Phew, you stink like a cat box.” I did. But I was still alive.
Ever after I have had a new appreciation for I Peter 5:8. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” Craftily he positions himself for a major assault upon our character. We recognize what is developing and safeguard ourselves by changing our environment only to have him begin anew with a revised strategy. This is not a game. He truly is seeking our demise. He knows he is lost. It galls him to think that we can have what he stupidly threw away. Let us not kid ourselves. He is real. He hates us with a malignancy. The Good News is we are never alone in the battle. Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always.” That is really Good News.
Written by Roger Bothwell on July 7, 2014
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org