Who's Your Daddy?

Matthew 16:19
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be (has been) bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be (has been) loosed in heaven.


I have a picture of my, then, 20 pound daughter, Regann, pointing her finger at and telling our 50 pound pit-bull to sit down, to which our dog, Augustine, is aptly responding by sitting with her ears back. That dog listens to my daughter almost better than she listens to us – she is on the verge of being terrified of Regann! It’s really kind of humorous! Regann is nothing to Augustine. The dog could chomp her up in a matter of seconds, but she doesn’t dare. To my great amusement, Augustine puts up with much from Regann – from pulling tails and ears, to sitting on her back while Augustine’s trying to sleep. God has most definitely blessed us with a patient and wonderful dog. Incidentally, as Regann grows older, Augustine grows more and more fond of her – they are really becoming quite good friends.

My point? Well, let’s think about this for a minute. Augustine does not listen to Regann simply because of the consequences from Regann is she doesn’t listen. Augustine is no dummy; she knows she could take Regann if it were ever up to that. No, Augi doesn’t listen because of who Regann is, but rather, because of whom she belongs to. Regann gets respect because Augi is afraid of her daddy. The dog knows that she has the backing of the most powerful guy in the house – if she crosses Regann, she crosses Chris.

Oh, that we would see how that applies to our spiritual lives! Christ has already conquered Satan. The only reason he can even attempt to bully us around is that we really don’t take a stand under our Daddy. And when we do, we need to remember, in much humility, that Satan doesn’t cower from us because of who we are, but because of whose we are.

We have the backing of our Daddy – let’s start using it and living the victorious lives Christ died to grant us! Stand up to Satan, who no longer has power over us or in us. Let’s imagine that he has gone from a 50 pound pit-bull to a 5 pound chihuahua – lots of attitude, but not much bite! "Get thee out of my way!"