Being chased by a rooster is terrifying. Especially for a child who is not equipped to fight off a mean bird.
When I was about four years old, I was flogged by one. My dad was in the garden behind our house and I wanted to be with him. I vividly remember seeing Dad through the fence ahead of me as I reached up to push the garden gate open. The rooster strutted toward me from the barn. That’s the last thing I remember. Like other traumas in my life, I blocked out the worst part.
I’ve been told, the mean rooster jumped on my head and attacked me with his spur nearly putting out my eye. Dad saw the rooster attack and rushed to my rescue. I’ve still got a scar near my eye to remind me for the rest of my life. Dad rang the vicious rooster’s neck and Mom made chicken and dumplings for dinner.
I was an innocent child seeking my father who was going about his work in the garden. I was attacked for heading toward my Dad. Evidently, I crossed the rooster’s territory and he didn’t like it much.
Don’t we have a spiritual enemy who does the same thing?
We’re making our way to our Father and we’re attacked. We’re trying to work alongside Him in the garden and we’re attacked. Satan does whatever he can to keep us from doing the work God has for us to do. Sadly, we’re in his territory here on earth.
A very young Christian may struggle resisting the devil’s tactics. We may not know how to fight back or have the strength because we’re so young and vulnerable.
We may end up like I did as a young child with a mean rooster jumping on our heads and flogging the living daylights out of us. He might try to put our eye out. And he might leave a scar.
As we grow as Christians, we will become more familiar with enemy tactics and we’ll become savvy fighters. Our best weapon is the powerful name of our Savior. When the devil is rebuked with authority through the mighty name of Jesus Christ and by the blood shed on our behalf as God’s children, the devil and his demons will flee.
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
James 4:7 (NIV)
God will allow testing and temptations but Satan has no power except what God allows him to have. Thankfully, we have a Heavenly Father who won’t stand by and let His child to be destroyed. And you know what?
God will ring his neck . . . and guess what’s for dinner?
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
We are Your children. Help us resist the devil and his demons. Reveal his tactics to us so we recognize the games he plays and how he manipulates wrong things to make them seem right.
In the mighty and powerful name of Jesus Christ, Amen.