Nip It

Remember the movie Wizard of Oz? Dorothy had  joined with the Scare Crow and the Tin Man and were in a thick forest as they began to think about wild animals. They began to say Lions and Tigers and Bears oh my. Well that was a wonderful childhood story but you know I have never been in fear of a Lion, a tiger or a Bear. I have never once worried about being eaten by any of those wild animals. Now the Bible warns us that the devil is like a Lion and his desire is to devour us

1Peter 5:8  Be sober, (keep your mind clear)   be vigilant; (be alert)   because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: In one sense you and I should be alert because our enemy is wanting to devour (to eat up greedily or ravenously) us. But I’m not expecting to have to run and hide from a Lion or a Tiger nor a Bear at all. But there is something you and I both need to be on the watch for and that is Nat’s, Flies and Mosquitos for we will be faced with those. Know what? You don’t see them coming until they are already there; they slip up on you. No, they don’t want to eat you or devour you like the Lion, Tiger or Bear, but none the less they are capable of spreading serious diseases. In Europe in the 14^th century the bubonic plague killed a third of the population and that plague was started by the fleas on rats not a Lion.The Bible warns us about small things that will destroy

Song of Solomon 2:15  Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. It wasn’t the big Foxes it was the little ones that did the damage, caused the problem and spoiled the vines. So it is with you and I, it’s the small talk; cutting others down, it’s too cold, it’s too hot, never happy always complaining, always talking and destroying; this too can be catching. It’s the little things that you and I must be on guard for not the Lions, Tigers and Bears. The picture that pops up you didn’t see coming, it’s the thought that flashes through your mind, it’s the small words that slipped out; its thinking life would be better if I had! Are we ever satisfied? 

Proverbs 27:20  Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

 As we start a fresh week let’s think before we speak.  Let’s make a plan when that little misquote of a thing comes our way that wants so badly to suck out the very blood and life. Let’s not give it the opportunity, let’s shut it down like we would slap the mosquito we saw on our arm. As Barney Fife would say “you’ve got to nip it in the bud.”

Have a great week and be thankful for it!