The Rake

My dad told me a story about two big, strong guys getting into a fight "a hundred years ago." My dad was on the side of (call him) Joe and the other guy was Tony. Joe was big and tough and told Tony to meet him at the fairgrounds. Everyone on my dad's side knew that this was going to be a pretty big fight. But the other guy, Tony, did something so unpredictable and confident that it shocked everyone. Tony brought a baseball bat with him to the fight. Joe, of course, said, "Yeah, you bring a baseball bat to fight me, that's hardly fair."

Tony shook his head, looked at Joe, tossed the bat to the warm summer gravel at Joe's feet and said, "The bat is for you. You're gonna need it." Then Tony commenced to beating the tar out of Joe, who wound up on his back with an unused bat in his hand and a look of disbelief. Now, to me, that is confidence.

David had that same confidence against Goliath. Moses was confident as he took on Pharoah. Noah looked crazy, but he had God on his side. Jesus never once flinched against the high priests. Confidence is what we know when we know God is in the fight with us. We are so dangerous to evil because we are on God's side.

Imagine the Church, strong in the Lord, throwing a bat before Satan saying, "Here, you're gonna need this to fight us." I have been thwapped by the rake so much about this lately that it hurts NOT to share it. Hey, be open to the rake wherever God places it in your path and remember, "...with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles (2 Chronicles 32:8)." Now that rake is better than any bat.