Belly-Up

Mr. Bill is spraying for bugs!  At least once a year, he gets out his sprayer and sprays the baseboards.  Actually, it works pretty good since most all the bugs I see are belly-up!  Yes!

 

God calls for perseverance.  Poor bugs strive to persevere, but [thankfully] it just don’t happen around here!  Sadly, Christians don’t always persevere either.  Satan likes nothing more than to cause us to fall.  He’s pretty good at hitting below the belt – dangling in front of us the very sin that entices and entangles.  There’s few things that crush me more than to know my weak link, then fall for his nasty tricks anyway.  Oh, how wonderful when we confess our sin, God is faithful and just to forgive (1 John 1:9) then send us on our way without further condemnation.  Just when Satan is whooped and we are free to move on, he reminds us of the sin for which we’ve been forgiven.  Then the guilt cycle begins: forgiven but not forgotten, forgiven but not forgotten, forgiven but not forgotten.  I take that personal beating again and again until finally it’s just Jesus and me, and His words break through: “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” (John 8:11).  Mr. Bill’s bug spray is potent; well, so is the power of God against self-inflicted guilt of past sin.  Forgiven sin is in the past where it must stay; it is dead and gone … it’s belly-up!  Let us rejoice and live on in the light of God’s amazing grace!