Thought For The Week

A couple of weeks ago, I looked out the front door and saw a small mound of dirt toward the front of the yard. I thought it was a new ant mound and said to myself, "I’ll put some ant killer on that thing tomorrow." Well, as it would be, I forgot about it for a couple of days and the next time I looked it was now three mounds of dirt. "That’s a gopher run and he’s heading straight toward Ms. Janet’s daylily bed!" Funny thing about those gophers, they make their advancements incrementally instead of one straight shot. They move toward their goal a little at a time and before you know it they’re in your garden or flower bed.

There’s another pest that uses incremental steps to achieve his goals, the old devil himself, Satan. He places small temptations in front of us like bread crumbs on a lost man’s trail. Just little indiscretions, nothing terribly noticeable, like an advancing gopher hole. It may be a wanting glance at the pretty girl, excusing the curse words we hear on our favorite TV series or movie. It could begin with missing a church service or not reading our bibles daily. The thing is, Satan is most successful when he works slowly and gradually. As we get used to these "little sins", we become desensitized and as 1 Timothy 4:2 says, we’ll have our conscience seared with a hot iron so that sin no longer bothers us. We must be constantly on guard of Satan’s devises (2 Cor. 2:11) and the tricks he uses to fool us into complacency (Eph. 6:11).

So when you see one of those gopher holes Satan is putting in your way, remember the words of James, "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." (James 4:7)

Jay Launius – 2023 Maud church of Christ Maud, Texas