Verses from Mama by Sandra Sheridan 

 

1 Peter 5:8 — “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

There was murder in the hen house this week. Monday evening started out like any other evening. The hens had made their way into the coop and found their roosts as usual. After putting our German Shepherd in the big barn and checking on the goats, Dad perused the chicken run. All seemed peaceful and quiet.

We prepared for bed and promptly fell asleep. Sometime in the night I awakened to a strange noise outside the window.

I thought I heard the girls clucking, but in my slumbering stupor I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Morning came and I was horrified to see a pile of feathers lying in the grass outside the fence. Upon further investigation I deduced that she must have escaped the pen and fallen prey to the murderer.

The next two nights, to our dismay, the same thing happened, only this time the victims were inside the coop itself. Something was getting in and ravaging our hens. One by one they were being decapitated, leaving only a lifeless body as evidence.

Our enemy, the devil, prowls around in the night and the day. He is always searching for a weakness in the fence of our lives where he can slip in unnoticed. We may have left a loophole into our minds by allowing greed or wrong desires to dwell there. Possibly we have left a gate ajar by associating with people who will not be good examples.

We combat this enemy through self-control. Stay alert, resist him, remain firm in your faith, and recognize that you are not the only one who could fall victim to his schemes. Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ not to be led into temptation, but to be delivered from the evil one. Always remember that greater is Christ Who is in you than he that is in the world.

It’s time to do some serious revamping of our chicken wire fence. It is very disturbing to think of some unknown murderer creeping around in the night. Whether it is chickens or our own lives, you just can’t let your guard down. If you do you might end up with murder in the hen house.