2006-02-25 - Faith, Trust, and Obedience Through the Eyes of a Cat

Hey my Friends,

I have a cat which I've had since it was a kitten. He's about 1 1/2 years old now and he has been a handful. He would have been wild, but he was abandoned by his mom, and so I adopted him. I named him Ebenezer, which means "stone of help" in Hebrew. I call him "Ebby." Sometimes I think his mother abandoned him because he bites so much.

Well, I have been trying to get him to be like cats that our family has had in the past, when I was younger. Unfortunately because he was born in the wild, and his eyes were opened in the wild, he seems to be wild. So even though I got him at about seven weeks old, he was used to the outdoor wildlife, sounds and smells etc. He was used to how his mom lived and brought home food to him. That's his "Old Nature," Now he has learned that he is an indoor cat, his "New Nature", who wants to get out. He wants to get out and return to his old nature. We are a lot like this, aren't we?

I found out what calms him down and brings him closer to me.He hasn't bit me much at all lately. In fact, he has been letting me come up to him and pet him. He also comes to me and wants me to pet him. Initially, I would put his food out and leave it out all day. He would just go pig out when ever he wanted. He was in control. Consequently he did as he pleased. This is what's going on with us in the USA. We're, paraphrased, "having it our way!" When we do anything we want, we get focused on ourselves, and in many ways, unknowingly we begin to care less about God, because we are in control, and not God.

Well what began to change Ebby's life was the fact that I began to feed him in the morning, and then after he ate, I covered up his food so that he couldn't get to it. In the evening, when it was time to eat again, I uncovered it and let him eat, and then covered it up again. After a few days of trying to get to the food on his own at times, he realized that he couldn't do it. That's when he began crying to me. He was hungry, and so he came to me to get him his food. He realized that he fell short of the power to get his food, and he needed the provider to get it for him.

This is almost a reflection of ourselves as God's children.

Jesus says do not worry and he wants us to put our trust and faith in Him

Matthew 6:25-34 pp—; Lk 12:22-31

Mt 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus doesn't want us to worry about the things the that we need. He wants us to trust him and walk by faith, not by sight. I feel that God delights in not giving us things freely right when we want it, because He wants us to come to him and ask for them, and be involved in a close relationship with Him. As we seek Him, He is faithful to be Jehovah Jireh, "God Our Provider" and provide exactly what we need and lavish us in His love.

Your friend In Christ Jesus,
Rob

rob@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org

I want my life to be for the glory of God