The Hunter or the Hunted?

     My rarest raptor sighting event was extremely brief but turned out to be one of the memorable events in my life. I almost ended up as the prey instead of the observer. It happened many years ago, when I was deer hunting in central Texas. I had climbed into a deer stand about ten feet up in an old oak tree, overlooking a large patch of oats. There was not much activity that afternoon, in the deer community. I had gotten bored waiting on the deer and had drifted off to sleep. I awoke after a while and open my eyes, but remained motionless so as not to scare off any deer that might have walked into my area. While scanning the oat patch below for the elusive deer, I caught a small movement in the sky, at the edge of my peripheral vision. I suddenly realized that it was growing larger and moving toward me at great speed! When I shifted my body and lifted my head to get a better look, I realized that it was a hawk that had detected my eye movement and decided to attack, not realizing my size. My movement was just in time for the hawk to abort his dive, passing a mere three to four feet from my head! The hawk passed close enough for me to feel the wind turbulence it generated. I can only imagine what would have happened if it had successfully completed its dive into my face! I’m sure that I would have been knocked out of the tree and possible broke a bone or two in the fall. I could have been the first fatality from a hawk attack! Thankfully the hawk and I both survived, to hunt again.
     Our spiritual life is often characterized as a battle field, good fighting against evil. There are times when we feel as if we are being attacked by the enemy. In Ephesians 6 Paul tells us to “put on the whole armour of God” and states that: “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”. Paul further tells us that to fight in this spiritual battle we need to arm ourselves with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. So, make sure that you study the Bible and know how to use these spiritual “weapons”, and when you feel like you are under attack from Satan, just remember Isaiah 49:19: “… when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him”!