Taking Advantage

This morning, I am thinking about my clever, but mischievous Chihuahua, Fudge.  I had to put him in time out yesterday because I caught him red-pawed, stealing.  He was wolfing down food from the dish of my Yorkie, Ginger.  Now, Ginger is almost 14 years old.  She’s partially deaf, mostly blind, and has only one tooth left.  What I observed was that Fudge would wait for Ginger to lift her head to “chew”, and then he’d slip his head into her dish and take several bites in the interim.  I put him in time out for two reasons.  First, he had already eaten his own food.  Second, he was taking advantage of Ginger’s weaknesses.  This makes me ask the question:  “In what ways have my own weaknesses been exploited by the Enemy and his callous forces?”  I am sobered as I wonder about blessings I was intended to possess, but they were stolen because I was too blind, too deaf, too slow, and too unaware.  I would say that all of these handicaps can be chalked up to spiritual ignorance.  I’m thankful for the ways I have learned (and am learning) how the Enemy craftily disguises that which is false as genuine, that which is temporal as enduring, that which is faulty as stable, and that which is deadly as inspiring.  In doing so, he can render a poor soul blind while seeing, deaf while hearing, and still inexplicably hungry and unfulfilled even after eating.

Well, after putting Fudge in time out, I replenished Ginger’s dish with what had been pilfered.  Then I let her finish her meal in peace.  As I sit here watching both of my “babies” curled up and sleeping soundly, I am filled with gratitude for God’s grace and mercy toward me.  He is not only able to put my Enemy in time out, but He gives me power and authority to recognize and resist his tactics.  He not only restores that which I have lost, but He actually prepares a special table of blessings for me in the presence of my Enemy.  He not only protects and defends me IN my weakness, but He delivers me FROM them!  So, rather than being taken advantage of, I will be taking advantage of my knowledge of this truth:  In all things, I have an Advocate.  My God truly cares for me.