Still I will – Day 14

Jeremy and Jason Holden, twins from Hollywood, decided to teach bike thieves in their city a lesson. With smart wiring on the bike, a remote control and a hidden camera, they took to the streets. They placed the unlocked bike against a lamppost in the street as “bait” to attract possible thieves.

Time and time again, someone walked by, saw that there was no lock on the bike, and took it. The moment of surprise came when the thief sat on the bicycle saddle. The twins, via the remote control, gave the thief an electric shock. The response was hilarious. One of the thieves got such a fright, that he almost drove straight into a nearby tree.

God is Light and we, therefore, in every aspect of our lives, have to strive toward living in the Light. If we don’t, we unknowingly get onto the enemy’s “bike” that he places in our lives as bait to cause us further pain and destruction. In Ephesians 4:26-27 we read: “Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.”

How do we get on the enemy’s “bicycle”? We do it by engaging in gossip, instead of stopping it; by choosing to repay evil with evil instead of forgiving and showing grace; by becoming impatient with our loved ones; by allowing our hearts to be filled with jealousy, deceit, slander and lust, instead of running from it (Romans 1:29-31); or by giving up our integrity in doing something that is not in line with God’s perfect will.

In Proverbs 4:23 we read: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” The psalmist understood this and therefore prayed in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” In 1 Thessalonians 5:19,22-23 we also read: “Do not quench the Spirit … hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Think for a moment about your own life. Have you consciously or unconsciously given a foothold for the enemy? Are you perhaps already experiencing the enemy’s “shocks” because of it? Let’s jump off the bike, throw it aside and run away from anything that separates us from the presence of God. And let us ask God to enable us, through his Holy Spirit, to live a blameless life before him. God bless.