Just outside of our living room window, stands a shepherd’s pole with a hanging suet block. Recently, my daughter acquainted herself with a winsome, tiny-winged fledgling who frequently visits the feeder. In fact, her charming friend has become notoriously known around our home as Mr. Boo-Boo.
Mr. Boo-Boo is injured (hence the name). Our crippled companion can fly but cannot stand on his right leg. Despite the significant injury, he can hover long enough to snatch a few seeds from the feeder, then he returns to our porch to swallow his savory supplements. The suet block is an essential lifeline. For days, we have watched him slowly recuperate. Like one brave birdie, he goes from the porch to the pole just to survive. He lives everyday peck by peck.
But you need more than guts and grit to make it. One morning, while cheering for our adorable and courageous comrade, we suddenly found ourselves staring into the sinister eyes of a hungry hawk. The enemy had swooped in on our unsuspecting, suet-warrior, and perched himself on the porch—posing like a proud victor.
Life is like that. We try hard to not be victims to hopelessness, but the truth is we’re all broken, hurting, and vulnerable. On the outside we can appear formidable; but on the inside, we’re dragging through the day with a throbbing, spiritual limp. And every morning we rise, futility is there to greet us again. And so, we try to fortify ourselves with bits of pride and pleasure, holding on peck by peck. The reality is we hobble through life hoping we’re not pummeled by that proverbial, lurking predator. The swooping enemy we know as death.
Spiritually speaking, we all sense an impending doom. The hobbling heart is symptomatic of a moral malignancy called sin, and the prognosis is worse than physical death. The only cure is faith in Christ. And although Christians may get beaten and bruised for heralding the remedy, they’re never dying or defeated. Because the life of the Christian is based inwardly upon a holy and untouchable reality. Their heart is ruled by Christ and is under his sovereign protection. In fact, the great evangelist George Whitefield stated (after assassins failed to kill him), “We are immortal until our work on earth is done.” Christians live on supernatural provision. The Apostle Paul wrote:
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:3-6, NASB).
The blessing that God grants is by undeserved, providential grace. And those blessings were not only determined before the creation of the world, but in love God gives his approval to those whose faith is in his begotten Son. God’s superabundant blessings belong to those who are his children through faith, because the Father is certain to provide and protect them. Hopelessness has no home in God’s kingdom! In fact, every Christian has blessed assurance when their heart is governed by the king. For where the king resides, the king will rule.
So, God acts on behalf of those who trust his Son. Similarly, my love for my daughter compels me to act on her behalf—like scaring the tailfeathers off a haughty-eyed hawk to see her birdie live. God promises, God provides, and we thrive in daily gratitude. We live as grateful children because we’re fortified through faith by the generous Father. Almighty God promises to bless with every spiritual blessing in his beloved, Jesus. His word is our lifeline. So, if your trust is in Christ alone as the Son and Savior, then don’t think you’re living peck by peck. You are living step by step, and it’s a walk by faith not by sight.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians, 2:8).
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