Waylon and Willy are my little 20 pound fur-ball friends that are apparently of a terrier type breed. I rescued them from an eight foot deep dry well they had fallen into as pups, and the owner insisted that I keep them. They’ve been my little friends and part of the family ever since. One day my brother Joe and I were standing behind his house, which was set in the woods, just yakking. Waylon and Willy were exploring just out of sight, down the little hill from where we were standing. Suddenly I heard them carrying on. Joe said, “Sounds like they jumped a rabbit.” I said, “No, I think that is a distress bark.” In another second there was even more carrying on, and with what I was hearing, they were definitely in some kind of trouble. I immediately started running into the woods down the hill toward the sound. In another couple of seconds, here comes Willy high-tailing at full speed out of the woods. In another second Waylon comes into view coming up the hill as fast as he could possibly run. Then in the next second I saw a fox right behind him. As I ran toward them at full speed, I began shouting and flailing my arms wildly to try to head off the inevitable. That fox was right on him ready to take him down. I remember the urgent anger that rose up in me. Without thinking of my own safety or well-being, I remember thinking, “I will tear that thing apart with my bare hands if I have to!” It just rose up in me. Good thing, I got the fox’s attention and he turned back while Waylon ran past me toward the house. Honestly, I think I would have tackled that thing to keep him off of Waylon.
You know, if we as a human will react that way toward a pet that is yelping out, don’t you know how God reacts toward his children who are “yelping out” to him. Jesus said a similar thing in Luke 11 where he was teaching on prayer. He said if a son asks for some bread of any of you that are a father, are you going to give him a rock? Or, if he asks for a fish, are you going to give him a venomous snake? Or, if he asks for an egg, are you going to give him a poisonous stinging scorpion? The answer is no, no, no. Then his point was that if you, being evil (natural), know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit, the power and ability of God, to those who ask him (vs. 9-13). Father God does not want us to be devoured by the enemy in any way. He made his power available to us by our yielding our all to the Holy Spirit. All who ask and yield in faith, receive.
