Do you enjoy yard work? I don’t mind it, it’s just finding the time to do it. I can’t let it go but so long before I have to get out there and get it done. This morning as I was looking out my back window, I realized the shrubs around the stone wall had to be trimmed. They couldn’t take one more day without attention.
I gathered all of my tools and made my way in the backyard. As I began to tend to the shrubs, I noticed ivy wound around the base of the shrubs. I haven’t planted ivy anywhere in my yard. I don’t care for it because it is the Ritz Carlton for snakes. As I started to trace it back to the origin, I discovered it was coming from my neighbor’s yard. It had crept its way between the small spaces in the fence and even come under the fence. When I grabbed it at the base of the fence and started to pull it out of my yard, I was amazed by how far it had spread and in so many directions.
Sin is like ivy in our lives. It is a place where the serpent dwells. He is constantly looking for cracks and crevices in our spiritual armor to enter in and spread throughout our lives. 1 Peter 5:8 says,
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
He prowls around our lives looking for the opening, the crack in our armor. The only way to ensure he will not find access is to consistently sure up our boundaries, resist the devil and declare every area of our lives as to the Lords. James 4:7 says,
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Like pulling the ivy out of my yard so snakes will have nowhere to hide, we must confess our sin to the Lord so He will cleanse us of all unrighteousness, giving the devil no place to reside in our lives [1 John 1:9]. Left alone, it will spread and overtake our lives without us realizing what happened.
While I had to do a little cleaning in the yard today, it might be time to do some spiritual house cleaning? Is the enemy camping in your house without your knowledge? It’s time to take inventory of your life and do whatever is necessary to get things in order. What do you find when you look closely?
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