Our family was camping at a lake with some of my large, extended family. What fun we were having! We swam and had campfires and enjoyed the beautiful mountain and lake where we were camping. One thing we especially enjoyed was getting pulled behind my brother’s boat on an inner tube, screaming and yelling as he turned the boat left and then right trying to dump us. Many of us slept in tents, but some were staying in a big cabin close by.
Late one evening, I was putting my children to bed in our tent. I happened to be right by the door of the tent when a deer’s head came through it. The deer seemed to be pretty aggressive! “Get out of here! Now!” I said in a frantic voice. I yelled at it and pushed against its head, but it kept coming at me! I kept yelling and pushing, thinking of my children and what havoc would come if a deer entered the tent!
Suddenly there was laughing outside the tent and the “deer” backed up. The “deer” was really only a deer’s head held by my younger brother! He had taken it off the cabin wall and decided to use it to trick me, making it look like a deer was coming into our tent. What a rascal! We all had a good laugh eventually, but at the time it wasn’t so funny!
Children, this incident made me think of some verses in the Bible that say, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8-98Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: 9Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. (1 Peter 5:8‑9)).
You will find as you go through life with the Lord Jesus (if you know Him as your Savior) that you have times when something scary happens, or perhaps there’s a hard time in your life. But you can be sure that it is only the enemy of our souls, Satan, who tries to scare you or harm you through that hard time. Can a roar hurt you? A roar might be scary sounding but it can’t hurt you. It can’t hurt you any more than a dead deer head that seemed real to me (and scary for a time) but wasn’t. If you belong to the Lord Jesus, then you are safe in His loving hands for as long as you live as well as for eternity! Call out to Him when you are scared or going through a hard time and He will help you, strengthen you to bear whatever you are going through, and give you peace. The Lord Jesus has promised, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” Because He said this, we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear” (Hebrews 13:5-65Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. 6So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. (Hebrews 13:5‑6)). Besides having that promise of His presence, He promises that “all things work together for good to them that love God” (Romans 8:2828And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)). He knows how to make the hard or scary times of life work out for our good. Trust Him and you will find out how wonderfully true this promise is!
Messages of God’s Love 1/10/2021