Down here in Florida, ants (the crawly little creatures that taste gross, not
this guy) habitually seem to find their way inside without invitation. This morning I was looking for something on my desk when my chemistry textbook caught my eye. Ants were crawling all over it. I'm not usually too creeped out by bugs but having a whole swarm of tiny little ants in my bedroom kind of grossed me out. I immediately tore my desk apart trying to find the source of their attraction. I found it. I was disgusted. I found them crawling about my purse - eek! Then I found them
in my purse. Then I found them gravitating towards my
cough drops - eew! I only consumed about 5 of them yesterday during church. How many ants did I chew up at the same time? I then hastily thrust my purse to the floor and watched it spew forth all its contents. I abruptly ended the inferior reign of any other life source that may have been trying to make its abode within my bedroom besides myself.
The thought occurred to me, while I was throwing things off my desk, that I'll do
whatever is necessary
whenever it is necessary to rid my room of any ants that set out to conquer my cough drops, but I find that, more often than not, I let sin just sit around and make itself at home within my own heart. Perhaps I let it stay because I'm unaware of it and have yet to be convicted of it. But what about the sin that I am, and have been, convicted of? Am I doing whatever it necessary to terminate it? Often times no. I don't like struggling. I don't like wrestling with anything. Who does? It's far easier to push sin under the rug than to kick it out completely. However, if sin is not done away with in its entirety when one is convicted, it will only come back fiercer than before.
We, as Christians, must constantly be ready and willing to
crush any sin that is lurking about. What have we got to lose? Just because Christ died for our sins and we now stand justified before the throne of God doesn't give us the liberty to sit around not doing anything about the persistent evils that so easily entangle us. Mortification of sin, each and every individual sin, brings us one step closer to conformity to Christ. Conformity to Christ means perfection. Holiness. What more could we desire?
While thumbing through
The Valley of Vision a few days ago, I came across a prayer entitled
Yet I Sin. The following few lines really jumped out and hit me between the eyeballs:
"My lips are ready to confess, but my heart is slow to feel, and my ways reluctant to amend. I bring my soul to Thee; break it, wound it, bend it, mould it. Unmask to me sin's deformity, that I may hate it, abhor it, flee from it."
While we're quick to stomp out ants, may we be quicker still to stomp out sin!
