THE POUNCING GOD

Posted on by Becoming His Tapestry

Hey friends, how are you today? There is snow on the ground, and it’s cold; a miserly 28° and that’s the high temperature today. Usually, days like these call for comfort robes and socks and Netflix and cuddles.  But today, I have to go out and comfort robes, socks and Netflix will have to wait. 

A few weeks ago, Jazz, our beloved pet, did the unforgivable.  This audacious cat had the gall to gift me a mouse! In my defense it was so very unexpected that the scrambling to get away  and the screaming was unavoidable.  Again, in my defense, in our home, everything has a place, and everything was in its place and there is definitely no place for a mouse. Jazz was highly offended when I clearly showed I did not appreciate her gift;  she just simply stared at me, instead of keeping her eyes on her prize, which quickly tried to escape to a new hiding place.   

Jazz the very spoilt cat

Thankfully my husband was at home at the time because the whole house might have been in some danger.  But after a few minutes, he found the still living mouse and put it back outside, from whence it came.  Of course, he could not see the problem, he just shook his head in disbelief. Of course, I had to remind him that after twenty five years of marriage, he should know me better now. Jazz and I had a very severe sit-down conversation after that little mishap, “mouse stays outside; cat stays inside, if cat want to live to enjoy all her nine lives!”   Needless to say, we’ve not had another mouse encounter.  Hopefully she has learned her lesson, but it could also be that it is now too cold for the mice.  I suppose the snow and the cold have it’s uses; the undesirables hibernate.  

When I was a little girl, I used to regard the Lord as a great, big lion or cat lying in wait to pounce on unsuspecting Christians when they sin.   In my imagination, He stood by just waiting to administer punishment.   To me, He was simply the God who judges and because I did not want to be punished, I tried to be good.  This became the pattern by which I lived for quite a few years.  I weighed my good against my bad and thought to myself that as a Christian, I was pretty good.  I participated in church activities, I served others and I reprimanded others when they faltered, I was a bit rebellious at home, but that was just one slight, sometimes justifiable, bad behavior compared with several good ones and my good outweighed my bad.  

The Word of God does not return void, does it (Isaiah 55:11)? Eventually the Lord had my attention and two schools of thought had to be changed.  The first was about God.  He does lie in wait for me, but not to punish but rather to redeem.  He placed roadblocks with His Word or people or circumstances because I am prone to go astray.  He sends me reminders of His grace and mercy. He hastens to forgive me and bring me back into His fold.  The truth is simply this: sin has consequences! God does not lie in wait to punish me for my sins. Sin comes with its ready-made consequences and my Good and gracious God tempers the consequences of sin with grace and mercy.  He still does not give me all what my sin deserves.

The second lesson I had to learn was about me.  I am not good; I never was and I never will be good.  I was made in sin and there is no good found in sin.  One sin is one too many for this holy and righteous God and I cannot claim to possess one sin and as Christians, we should know better.  As Christians, we’ve been called to do good and perform good works, but I inaccurately tried to do this in my own strength.  Initially it was not intentional, but as a Christian, the Lord performs a good work in me, and I began to look good to me.  I took the good that my Invisible God brought to my life and made it mine and that was my downfall and for a while my faithless heart thought that meant I am good now.  I brought the standard down to mere man’s and when compared to me, I turned out to be pretty good, but that was never my good to claim.   

Well pride and self really have no place when our eyes are on the Lord.  Eventually, He allows truth to sock into our lives, eventually He opens our eyes to truth.  The truth is God is good and I am not.  The truth is sin has consequences. The truth is obedience to the Word of God brings blessings. 

How are you today? What lessons has 2020 taught you? 

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47 thoughts on “THE POUNCING GOD”

  2. Jazz what a cutie!!! I get what you mean about God and his authority.
    In the Old Testament God seems to come across as harsh but when we look closely and focus on the discipline for our benefit it makes more sense, it’s also beautiful to consider how gracious God was in seeing the stubborn Israelites through despite their rebellious behaviors. So ya just like you mentioned it’s us in the wrong and God bringing our focus to Him even if it means a bit of correcting!!
    Great post!!❤️

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  3. Pingback: THE POUNCING GOD — Becoming HIS Tapestry – QuietMomentsWithGod

  4. Ah, Brenda, poor Jazz was just trying to wake you up! Hee Hee! I think it worked, although he is in danger of losing a few of those 9 lives! My Grace has dropped a few of those gifts outside my front door that almost made me break something trying to get away!

    How true is it that we all may have thought those same thoughts about God once upon a time, until we had a personal realization that He is waiting to love on us instead. Loved this post! It gave me a chuckle and made me think! 💜

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  6. I love how you worked the ‘mouse situation’, into the ‘God as a pouncing Lion’, idea.
    This is also spot on, “The truth is simply this: sin has consequences! God does not lie in wait to punish me for my sins. Sin comes with its ready-made consequences and my Good and gracious God tempers the consequences of sin with grace and mercy.” Amen! To God be the glory! Great and meaningful read.

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  7. Brenda, these lessons are so right on! … for me too! And Jazz is beautiful. I had Annie who looked very much like Jazz and was a hunter too! Annie has been gone for about 8 years so was wearing a smile to see Jazz because I loved my Annie, and miss her too. I am also like your blog title. I am a weaver and my blog is called Being Woven!

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  8. So many fall under the weight of an angry God – one ready to pounce. When in truth He simply wants to shower us with his love and grace.
    On a lighter note – my daughter’s cat left her a gift once too. She left what was left of her catch (we think kidneys and liver) outside my daughter’s bedroom door. Heather didn’t step on it in the early morning hours but she sure did some dancing.

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  9. Thankfully we are good because of the life of Christ in us. Only as we yeild to the Lordship of Jesus in our lives can we fulfill the good work He has prepared for us.

    I loved the cat story and your cat is beautiful. My Aunt had a flying squirl in her house and her two cats could not catch it. At first she thought it was a baby squirl, but when I saw the picture, I knew it was a flying squirl. I told her to get a “Have-a-Heart” trap and she was able to catch it. But instead of realeasing it far from her home, she made an insulated box for it on her back porch because she thought it was too cold outside for it to survive????? Maybe she thought she was doing a good thing. I love my Aunt, thankfully God made us all unique.

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  13. You were a wonderful blessing to read today.
    Oh, btw, cats are particularly the most intelligent creatures Father made, next to humans. Some think they are dumb because they cannot be trained to retrieve a stick like a dog. But when a cat sees you throw a stick and say, “Fetch,” its reply is, “Why should [I] go get it, silly. You threw it away; get it yourself!” :-0))))) Loved the mouse story!

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  14. I am learning the lesson of waiting and to give God my plans. I had planned to go to MD the first part of November, but I broke my foot and was in a cam boot made it difficult for me to go up and down stairs and our son has steps. Lots of steps! So we prayed and visited last week instead. Then, we had plans for our daughter and her family to come down for Christmas weekend. I was so excited…but then yesterday, my grandson tested positive for Covid and my daughter and granddaughter have symptoms, too. So, prayers for Hope, Tyler and Teya appreciated. Plan B: Scott, our son who lives in VA with his family could come over. They were on quarantine at Thanksgiving because Iris (our granddaughter) had been exposed to Covid at school. No problem…Christmas reunion. Except now my son Scott has Covid and they are all on quarantine again. So, now, I am on Plan C and God could have told me all along that it would have just been me and my husband here for Christmas. But I didn’t check out my plans with Him. He is my God and I trust Him to make all things work out for my good. Blessings during this busy season, Brenda. By the way, my cat Daisy presented me with a dead mouse this morning. I shrieked, awakened my husband and he took care of it. He was shaking his head and told me that it was not a big deal. Maybe not to him, but my little heart was pounding away. Three creatures I hate are mice, spiders and snakes. Ewww!

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  15. This lesson of “there is no good in me” is a hard one to swallow, much less live by, day to day. But you’re absolutely right: God is so gracious and good and kind, He shows us His truth, and works in us to want to become more like Him and less like us.
    I hope you get no more mousies ever in your comfy home.

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  16. Your cat is so cute! I love how you break that down – God loves us and desires to bless us. AND sin has consequences. AND we don’t earn His love by being good. It is through His power we become who He knows we can be.

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  18. 2020 has taught me that no matter how things look God is sovereign and I can trust Him. It’s been a hard year and like many I have groaned and grumbled about everything! But…there is always a but…I began to see what was happening because of all this ugliness going on. As Americans we thought we were good, that we were okay and all of life is fine; then our eyes began to be opened and we began to see how we as Christian Americans had allowed our foundations to disappear and how far we had strayed from His plan and purpose for us as a nation. Then the amazing happened. People began to gather by the hundred thousands for prayer rallies…in Washington and other cities around the country. People gathered in the streets and on the beaches to worship God. And I began to see that all that has happened this year has happened to bring God’s people out of their comfort zones and into His war zones and it has truly been amazing! What next? It could be more amazing than anything we have seen so far and that is truly wonderful. Isn’t God good?!

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    1. Amen and amen 🙏🏽 yes 🙌🏽 our God is good and amazing and kind. What a life changing God we serve. Indeed when hard times come our way, we learn to adjust and do things differently. In spite of the circumstances, we find new ways to worship our Creator God

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