I woke up this morning to the horrible realization that there were a bunch of mosquitoes in my room. Incredibily, I don’t think I got bit last night but I killed at least 8 – 10 this morning. I noticed that I was simply relentless in my attempt to destroy these little creatures….and for good reason. These little buggers do a lot of harm via malaria & I know that co-existence is really not an option. I kill them because they are harmful & the disease they carry kills an estimated one million people per year (according to the International Federation of Red Cross).
In the middle of my insect genocide it occurred to me that there are some similarities between how we deal with mosquitoes and how we’re called to deal with sin. The Lord commands us wage war against our fleshly desires, to flee from sin & to pursue holiness. Scripture provides several reasons for this call to kill sin in our lives & one of them stems from the simple but overly profound assertion that God loves us deeply, intimately and perfectly (Romans 5:8) and doesn’t want us to die from our spiritual malaria (Romans 6:23).
If I could add further to this little analogy by stating that there are four primary ways you can help avoid getting malaria:
1. Sleep under a mosquito net
2. Wear some form of repellent
3. Take preventative medicine (Malarone, etc…)
4. Avoid going out at dawn or dusk when mosquitoes are most active
Let’s not focus on the fact that I have broken every single one of these rules since I got here. The place I’m staying doesn’t have nets, I forgot my repellent, I’m not taking Malarone & I went out last night for dinner and sat on an outdoor type patio. Instead let’s look on the four things Scripture says I should be doing in my war against sin:
1. Absorbing God’s Word (Ps. 119:9-16, Romans 12:2)
2. Submitting to His Spirit’s presence in my life (Galatians 5:16ff, Romans 13:14)
3. Living in real, authentic (& often painful) community with other Christ-followers (Ephesians 4:25, Proverbs 27:17, Proverbs 13:20)
4. Being honest about and taking appropriate steps to deal with our junk (1 John 1:9, James 5:16, Matthew 18:15ff)
For some reason my skin started to itch after reading your post! Good words…..
Glad you’re doing better in the war against spiritual attack…in the long run that one probably offers greater rewards! However, please go ask Gordon for some repellent! I know there was some in the room last time. Love you and miss you.