My kids are awesome. They have a caring spirit and will often see that we are struggling with the day, and simply jump in and do something good, like make lunch (for instance)
That is great and I am grateful when a sandwich arrives next to me… but a few hours later, when I walk into the kitchen and see the whole refrigerator packed out on the table and left there after the sandwiches were made… my living thoughts turn a bit sideways…
Because in my mind the job is only done when the Mayo and cheese is closed up and put away, the plates are in the dishwasher, the work surfaces cleaned up.
I know I am right about this because Jesus mentioned exactly this in Mathew 12…
“… When a demon is cast out of a person, it roams around a dry region, looking for a place to rest, but never finds it. Then it says, ‘I’ll return to the house I moved out of,’ and so it goes back, only to find that the house is vacant, warm, and ready for it to move back in. So it goes looking for seven other demons more evil than itself, and they all enter together to live there. Then the person’s condition becomes much worse than it was in the beginning…”
(Matthew 12:43-45)
Ok… not exactly sandwiches, but close… The job wasn’t done… that’s my point.
I think this is Jesus teaching a natural and spiritual law in one go.
Go into your house and find a shelf full of stuff … clean and empty that shelf and leave it. Not a week will go by before it starts to accumulate more stuff!
Our hearts and lives are the same:
Cleaning out a sin, or a way of thinking or a bad habit or even a proper demon requires us to *complete the job.*
It requires that we fill the gap left…
The gap left by alcohol? Needs to be filled by something else, otherwise one glass of wine makes its way back, then two and before you know it a Mexican and Russian is fighting in the corner.
Negative thoughts? If you do not actively replace the thoughts with positive, creative and uplifting thinking, you will attract the darkest fears of every person around you.
And it’s hard work! Secular psychology says it takes 21 days to create a changed or positive neural pathway, but it takes 66 days to change into a life habit… that is three butterfly lifetimes!
Seriously though… can you see why the world struggles with debt, with porn, with drugs and dependencies, with relationships, with fatherhood? With little demons arranging seemingly harmless meetings and events to trap your mind and thoughts. We even give ourselves grace and call it a “cheat day”… training our mind that it’s ok… it’s just one drink, it’s just one video, it’s just 15minutes on Facebook… or TikTok.
But we can cheat the system… we have the Holy Spirit. We have assistance. We have that coach that speaks into our hearts with a warning and a nudge. We just need to recognise and then decide to listen. To turn around, to walk away. To fill up with goodness that there is no space for evil.
David wrote:
” I’m so broken, needy and hurting. My heart is pierced through and I’m so wounded. I’m slipping down a dark slope, shaken to the core, and helpless…”
(Psalm 109:22-23)
Have not everyone of us cried out these words?! I definitely have… over and over and over.
But David also declares, (as I have done)
“For you stand beside me as my hero who rescues me. I’ve seen with my own eyes the defeat of my enemies. I have triumphed over them all!”
(Psalm 118)
We do not walk out of the house with no bullets in our guns, we don’t drive without enough petrol in the car to get us there? Do we not all charge our phones before we leave the house? Charge up in the spirit today and be ready for the snares of the devil.
So go ahead, stand with me and face that crap in your life and declare:
”His Faithfulness lasts forever and He will never fail you!”
(Psalm 117)
