This morning I go out on the porch to eat breakfast and read my bible, and my cat comes out to join me. About that time, the neighbors' very large pitbull comes out of the house across the street. My cat looks nervously at me, and then proceeds to jump off the porch and head toward the dog! I watch with dismay and unbelief that my cat could be so ignorant and unintelligent. They say "Like pet, like owner," and I am refusing to claim her at this moment.
As she gets closer to the dog, her tail starts looking like a squirrel's tail, all puffed out. She goes into stealth mode, sneaking up on him. Then she stops, and the dog turns and sees her. It's the moment of truth. The dog looks at her with a puzzled look on his face, trying to figure out if she's bluffing or if she's as dangerous as she obviously thinks she is. He takes a few steps back, and she hisses.
Then the dog seems to realize that there's a size difference between them. He takes a second look at my cat, and barks loudly. She shudders about the same time I do, and at this point I come off the porch in case he decides he's hungry and wants cat for breakfast. He sees me and growls. By this time, I'm talking to both of the animals. I say, "Mr. Dog, I'm sorry. My cat obviously has not looked in the mirror lately, and she thinks she's bigger than you. Please ignore her..."
And I'm saying "Here, kitty, kitty!" in forceful tones that she's clearly ignoring. I can almost read her mind; it's saying, "Lemme at him, lemme at him!" Finally the dog turns around, tired of wasting his time on something a tenth of his size, and heads back toward his house. The cat turns back to me, looking quite smug. I just roll my eyes and take her into the house where at least for the moment she'll be safe from her ignorance.
As I was watching this, I thought about how my cat has attacked dogs in the past. She's so small and weak that most of the dogs could have turned on her and done away with her, but yet they ran off. This was one of the few dogs that didn't run away from my cat. Yet he didn't attack, and he seemed intimidated at first that she would even attempt to attack him. Isn't this how we as Christians react to attacks from Satan?
We don't realize how powerless he is, and how powerful we are because of Christ within us. We need to look in the mirror of God's Word, realize who we are in Christ, and stand up to the devil! For too long we have been backing down and even allowing the devil access to our territory, to our "yard" so to speak. He's not going to go away just because we back down. He's going to keep intimidating us until we stand up to him and use the power God has given us to chase him off. It may seem scary to us, but if we could see the situation as God sees it, we would realize our fear is just as silly as the pitbull's fear of my cat.
The bible says the devil walks about "as a roaring lion," seeking whom he may devour. Notice it doesn't say he is a roaring lion, but rather he's "as" a roaring lion. My cat may walk around thinking she's a lion, thinking she's big stuff, but she's just a little black kitty. Let's realize who we are in Christ, that we don't have to back down, and that through Christ, we have power over the enemy!
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