DON'T LET THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG
An elderly woman in Atlanta accidentally ran over her neighbor's cat. Since the owner’s daughter would soon return from school, she asked the lady to dispose of her pet, not wanting to traumatize the young girl. The “cat-killer” was on a mission to the mall, so she placed the feline in a plastic bag, and continued to her destination. Not desiring to leave the cat's corpse in her car on a hot Atlanta day (wonder why), she placed it in a shopping bag, tying it to the antenna.
As she approached her car after shopping, the lady spied a woman run up, grab the plastic bag, and dash into a coffee shop. According to witnesses, the woman sat down, stuck her hand in the bag and began groping her "treasure." Puzzled by how it felt, she pulled out the dead cat, screamed, fainted from shock, and hit her head. The last they saw of the thief, she was lying on a stretcher, being rolled to an ambulance. The bag containing the dead cat was resting on her chest. Imagine the stir that created among the hospital staff!
“Don’t let the cat out of the bag” is more than a mere colloquialism. While we’ve probably never opened a gift-wrapped dead cat, we’ve all done it spiritually. We latch onto something we're convinced is good, only to end up holding a dead cat. Perhaps we know we should avoid a relationship with someone who's bad news, but we ignore the Spirit’s promptings and dive in. After much sorrow, we realize it’s a dead cat. Or maybe it's a get-rich-quick deal, that's too good to be true, and we discover it really is (too good to be true). Another dead cat. Or we explode in an argument, thinking it will help us feel better—but we feel worse.
Satan has bags full of "dead cats" to dump into our lives, all disguised as treasures. He's the father of lies (John 8:44). Proverbs 14:12 warns, “You can rationalize it all you want and justify the path of error you have chosen, but you’ll find out in the end that you took the road to destruction” (TPT). Next time we're tempted to grab something we know isn't good, listen to warnings from God's Word and the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Don’t let the cat out of the bag.
Principle: Something that often looks good, can turn out to be a "dead cat.”
Promise: Listen to God’s word and the Holy Spirit and avoid a lot of dead cats in our lives.
Ponder:
What “dead cats” does Satan disguise and often tempt me with?
How can I learn to avoid them?
Prayer: “Lord, open our eyes to the lies of Satan. Help us to listen to your word and the Holy Spirit and avoid the ‘dead cats’ the enemy dangles in front of us.”
Pursue: For a deeper dive, study John 8:31-44.
Perceptions: Record any ideas God puts on your heart from this devotion.