Read Proverbs 5:21-23; Hebrews 4:10-13
As glass when it slips from the hand, so our spiritual life has been shattered by sin, leaving us vulnerable and uncertain.
Each instance of sin leaves our spiritual doors open and undefended. Sin crouches like a roaring beast, seeking to devour.
And instead of turning to the Lord, we try to fix it ourselves. We have a mortal wound, but we are frantically searching the bandaid box in our own hands for remedies.
Like an addict who just wants money to buy what will continue to kill him, we come to God demanding the glue that will somehow hold all these pieces together. Oh foolish one! He would give you wholeness, but you refuse to ask for it!
We all have in our mind’s eye the maps and photographs of the beseiged city of Kiev, with the menacing snake of Putin’s army curling ever tighter around it, ready to choke out life.
While sin ensnares us, drawing the noose tighter around the city of our hearts, we are busy digging entrenchments. We shovel madly to stay put, to hold on to the shattered pieces of life we have managed to cobble together.
And what does the Lord do? He makes level our trenches. He fills in all the holes we’ve dug to hide ourselves. Like He did with the useless vegetation Adam and Eve strung together to try to cover their nakedness, the Lord flings our illusions away. A trench will never keep us safe, so He removes it, and we writhe in the pain of exposure.
“And no creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” Meanwhile, our sin clenches tighter, choking us, shutting out life.
We cannot surrender to sin. We cannot return to our shovels.
It seems we have only One Hope.
What sins capture the city of your heart?
What trenches do you try to dig or bandaids do you try to apply to escape the consequences of sin?
What can you do today to surrender to the Lord?
Extra Reading: Hebrews 4:14-16
Sarah Dixon Young 