Overcoming the Wily One - Martin Wiles

God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming to strong that you can stand up against it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

With the wily ways of his nature, the opossum lured my chicken to her death.

After one move, I decided to buy a few chickens. I saw no need to fence them since I lived in the country, but I was wrong. Some immediately headed for the woods. Others became food for wild varmints. Finally, only one chicken remained. I did my best to protect her by putting her in a cage with small holes and placing her next to the back porch. Surely, a wild animal wouldn't get her here. I was wrong again. The next morning, the cage was completely empty. Not a feather in sight. An opossum had lured her with his charming ways and sucked her out of the cage piece by piece.

Satan came in the form of a serpent in the Garden of Eden, and Peter classified him as a roaring lion seeking to kill. Paul, however, gives us encouragement. God controls Satan's temptations.

Sometimes, I must remind myself that temptation isn't the same as sinning. Satan tempts, God allows it, and I'm the one tempted, but temptation isn't sinful. Instead, it demonstrates my desire to live obediently to God's commands. If I were already living as Satan wanted, he would have no need to tempt me.

Satan would love nothing better than for us to adopt a we-can't-win attitude. Having this mindset sets us up for defeat—and Satan loves it when a defeatist attitude overcomes us. With a defeatist attitude, we'll give in to temptation more easily. We won't be able to summon up enough energy to fight. Why bother, we'll muse. We might as well give in.

Through interaction, Satan learns our weaknesses and targets them. Once he discovers where we're prone to fail, he'll attempt to suck the life out of us like the opossum did my chicken.

But giving in to temptation isn't necessary. The one who lives in us is greater than the one tempting. Through prayer, depending on the Spirit's power, putting on spiritual armor, exercising caution, staying in the Word, and associating with Christian encouragers, our chances of winning over the wily one increase tremendously.

If Satan has duped you into thinking you can't win over his wily tricks, take heart. Through Christ, overcoming the wily one becomes possible.

Father, thank you for providing me the power to overcome the enemy's tactics.

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Never Forsaken - Martin Wiles

My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help? Psalm 22:1 NLT

I had a few chickens and a couple of ducks; why not add a goat?

The call came from a church member: “I have a goat whose mother won’t nurse her. Would you like to have her?

“Sure, why not,” I said. I’d bottle-fed a pig some years earlier. Why not try a goat?

We made her a bed in our utility shed. Unlike the rest of the family, my schedule was flexible, so feeding her fell to me: morning, noon, evening, before bed, and once in the middle of the night. After weaning her, I placed her in the pen with the chickens and ducks. She was more of a pet than a farm animal. Gracie discovered that being forsaken by her mom didn’t mean everyone would abandon her.

Why the psalmist felt forsaken and penned this psalm, I’m not sure. But Jesus used the same words while hanging on the cross, dying for the sins of humanity. He said it because He was bearing the total weight of the world’s sins. Being the holy God He is, His heavenly Father had to turn away at that moment. How the Divine could turn from the Divine is unexplainable, but it was only momentary. When Jesus completed the deed, God accepted what His Son had accomplished, raised Him from a grave, and received Him back into heaven.

I’ve felt the pains of being forsaken by others: peers who thought I was different and didn’t want anything to do with me, work associates who thought I attended to my responsibilities too intricately, church members who didn’t like the changes I suggested, and others who were turned off by my faith stand.

Being forsaken happens in life. But although others forsake us for various reasons, God will only do so for one reason: unbelief. Even then, He continues to prick our consciences with His Spirit, desiring that we repent of our sins and trust Him.

As His child, He’ll never turn His back on us. Even when we’re unfaithful to Him, He’ll be faithful to us. He made the promise that He’ll never leave or forsake us. And we can depend on His word.

Gracie may have felt forsaken, but she wasn’t. We may feel God has turned His back on us, but He never does.

Father, I thank You that I can always be sure You are by my side. 

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Respecting the Boundaries - Martin Wiles

He makes peace in your borders, And fills you with the finest wheat. Psalm 147:14 NKJV

 

During the day, they roamed freely, but at night . . .

 

As the early morning light graced the farmland surrounding her house, she inched across the backyard, scattering food for her chickens. As they gathered around her feet, vying for the corn and scratch feed she sprinkled on the ground, she snatched one by the neck—a nice plump hen. Before that chicken knew what was happening, she had wrung its neck, plucked its feathers, removed its innards, dissected its body, and placed the various parts into a cast iron frying pan boiling with hog lard.

 

I never actually saw my grandmother do this—but I did in my mind as my mother told the story. My grandmother loved chickens—or at least what they provided. She even knew how to cut and cook the pulley bone—a piece rarely cut now. When the person eating it finished, they often invited someone else to put their hand under the table and help them pull the bones apart. Whoever got the longest bone would have good luck.

 

But at night, my grandmother confined her chickens in a small coop nestled just behind her house and outside her bedroom, where she could hear if something got in the chicken coop. Nocturnal creatures wouldn’t bother the chickens during the day, but at night they slithered around. Coons, opossums, foxes. Her chickens were too valuable to lose. They provided meat for her family and eggs for baking and cooking.

 

Evidently, the chickens didn’t mind the boundaries. When my grandmother called them at dusk, they willingly walked the small plank into the coop.

 

My grandfather followed suit with his hogs and hunting dogs by placing fences around their areas. Years ago, folks allowed hogs to run free in the woods and only penned them before butchering, but not my grandfather. Had he not fenced them in, they would have wandered into the road or strolled miles away for someone else to catch and kill. The same thing would have happened with his hunting dogs. If the road had not killed them, someone else would have gladly taken them.

 

God, too, placed boundaries around His Old Testament people—limits that are still in place for believers. He calls them His commandments. God promised fruitful harvests and peace within their borders if they obeyed. If they disobeyed, the opposite would happen. Some boundaries we might not understand—and some might appear burdensome—but He places them there with purpose.

 

I’ve not always appreciated the boundaries others placed on me: parents, employers, doctors, government officials. But deep inside, I know they benefit me—especially God’s borders. His guiding commands and moral principles protect us from harmful things, nurture us so we can grow spiritually into the person He wants, and demonstrate His matchless love.

 

How can you learn to live willingly within God’s boundaries? Remember, He puts them there out of love.

 

Father, thank You for the boundaries You have placed around me. 

Tweetable: Are you respecting God's boundaries? 

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Mind the Chickens - Martin Wiles

Jesus replied, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean. John 13:10 NLT

Sometimes, chickens leave behind more than eggs and meat.

My maternal grandmother had a dozen or so chickens wandering around her yard. At night, she enclosed them in a small pen, complete with a coop. There, they slept and laid eggs.

Being the country boys we were, my cousin and I stayed outside most of the time, romping through the woods, playing in the hog pens, and mulling around in the yard—the same yard the chickens scratched in. Since we didn’t always wear shoes during the summer months—and even if we did, our grandmother would warn us before we came onto her porch or into her house: “Check your feet (or shoes).”

Chickens, it appeared, left more than eggs, and my grandmother didn’t want it in her house or on her porch. When we discovered this unwanted material on our shoes, we paused to scrape them on the dirt or on a grassy patch. Doing so became such a habit that eventually our grandmother didn’t have to remind us as much.

In Jesus’ day, getting one’s feet dirty was a fact of life. If shoes were worn, they were open sandals, and open sandals don’t keep out dirt. And since the main form of travel was by foot, people’s feet stayed dirty. When entering a house, it was common for the owner—or his slave, to wash the guest’s feet. He didn’t, however, wash the entire person. If the person needed a full bath, they could tend to that.

Jesus’ meaning is deeper. The bath happens when I trust Christ as my Savior. God the Father takes the righteousness of His Son and applies it to my sin, making me pure and holy in position—although not in practice. But daily living is like walking in my grandmother’s yard. I’m subject to get my feet messy with unwanted things. The world is full of sinful influences and testy temptations.

The news isn’t all bad though. Jesus says I just need to wash my feet. Through the spiritual disciplines of praying, meditating on the Bible, and confessing, I scrape my feet across the dirt or on a grassy patch and remove what shouldn’t be there. Confession brings restoration, and knowing God’s Word keeps my lifestyle aligned with His principles.

Learn to mind what the chickens of this world leave behind.

Prayer: Father, give us insight and courage to avoid those things that dirty our feet and taint our souls. 

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Hemmed In - Martin Wiles

You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Psalm 139:5 NIV

The fence was there for a purpose—not just for looks.

The first house I lived in was situated on two acres of land just outside of town. Gardening and farming had always been in my blood—I suppose because both of my grandfathers had, so I decided to set up a small farm. I bought 20 chickens, 2 goats, and 2 hogs.

Before buying any of my animals, I erected two fences. A six-foot high fence for the chickens, complete with one by fours around the bottom. For the hogs, I put up hog wire and fastened it to the ground with stakes. Though I’d had none of these animals before, I knew their tendency. My maternal grandfather raised hogs, and I watched as they continuously tried to root under the fence. Since goats go over, I topped the fence with barbed wire. I’d watched my maternal grandmother raise chickens, so I knew they love to fly over a fence and roost up high.

I didn’t hem my animals in because I wanted to make their lives miserable. Just the opposite. I knew if they got out, they might be killed by other animals, run over in the highway, or tempted to go into the neighbor’s yard and root up everything. The fence protected them.

The psalmist also knew God hemmed him in for a reason. He was hemmed in by God’s commands and principles as well as His daily interaction in his life. He enjoyed being hemmed in.

As His child, God hems me in also. Instead of looking at His commands and principles as cruel and cumbersome—things given to make my life miserable, I see them for my good. Like my hogs and goats, I have a tendency to root under God’s commands and jump over His principles. Things on the other side look more appealing.

But God knows what’s best. That’s why He gave guiding ideologies. And that’s why He gently brings me back into the fence with His discipline when I get out. He loves me and wants me to experience the best in life—which I won’t if I go over or under what He’s put there to hem me in.

Learn to live within the hemming boundaries of what God has erected. He provides the fences for your good, not your detriment.

Prayer: Father, thank You for hemming us in so we won’t wander on paths we’d be better off leaving alone. 

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Chickening Out - Martin Wiles

So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. Numbers 13:32 NLT

When I was young, chicken was more than the animal.

I was young when I learned chicken wasn’t necessarily a chicken. Chickens ran around my grandmother’s yard during the day and were locked up in the coop at night. But if my cousin asked me to do something I was scared to do and I didn’t do it, he labeled me a chicken. And since I was somewhat scared of adventurous things, I often wore the label.

“Marty, I bet you won’t jump off the tractor shed,” he might say.

“Are you crazy,” I’d respond.

“Chicken. Bak, bak, bak.”

Or if it was something I initially said I’d do but then changed my mind about at the last minute, I would be accused of chickening out. Either way, I was a chicken.

Of the twelve spies Moses sent into the Promised Land, ten chickened out. Four hundred years of Egyptian slavery was behind the Israelites. Now, they stood on the border of the land God had promised their ancestors. 

Out of fear—or either good sense, Moses sent twelve men to peruse the land. It was promising alright but was also guarded by giants and walled cities. Ten of the men chickened out. Only Joshua and Caleb maintained they could take the land. The majority’s disobedience cost the Israelites forty years of wilderness wandering.

I’m fond of telling people God won’t ask them to do anything they can’t do—but most of the time that’s not true. God often asks me to do things I can’t do. If I can do it, I don’t need Him. If I can’t do it—but He helps me do it, then the spotlight is shone on Him and He gets the glory for what’s accomplished.

What God asks of me, He enables me to do. 

He would have enabled the people to conquer the land—and He did for another generation 40 years later. The walled cities and giants were no problem for them when God was their guide.

I wonder how many things I’ve missed doing for God because I chickened out and never started. Living the Christian life involves faith and trust, and sometimes the faith must be blind faith—the kind children have.

Don’t chicken out on what God asks of you. He’ll always supply the strength, the way, and the courage.

Prayer: Father, help us to trust You for the wisdom and power to do any and everything You ask. 

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