Recently our house has become infested by houseflies. I have used the fly swatter some, but there are still so many of them it's unreal. Leah and I are not sure how they got in or where they are keeping their little nursery, but there seem to be more each day. I know part of the problem is that I have ignore them as much as possible and haven't grabbed the swatter and taken a swing at every opportunity. I plan to try to kill as many as I can today, and we may have to break down and get one of those nasty traps. Something has to be done before we end up with so many of the little pests that our home begins to resemble the fly scene from the classic film, Amityville Horror. It may seem like I've gotten off track, but I haven't. The flies are the problem They get in everything and anything left out.
So, since I needed to step away from the table and didn't not want to take my coffee with me, I tried to keep it safe. I placed a bag over the top of the glass and the pot to keep the flies out and went on. About five minutes later, I returned to find the bag lying on the floor by the table. Sneaky little bugs bounced up and down on it until it fell from atop the coffee. OK, so that's how I imagine it happening. I understand the AC was likely the real bag moving culprit. Regardless, the bag was on the floor and, sure enough, a fly did the dead bug float in my precious elixir. My attempts to safeguard against the flies while putting off really dealing with the problem by killing them failed.
So what's the point? As I looked down at the suicidal cousin of Francois Delambre, it occurred to me that this situation is similar to the space between Steps 6 & 7. In step 5 we admit to God, ourselves and another person the exact nature of our wrongs, and we begin to see a pattern, areas of our life where we respond and react selfishly and in a manner that is different than the will of God for our lives, where we act unloving. In recovery speak we call these character defects. The Bible calls them sin. Call them what you will, the point is we are being controlled by something other than God's love and will for us in these areas. They are sources of bondage. And even if you, Dear Reader, are not in recovery and or do not apply the spiritual steps to freedom in your discipleship, we all have areas of bondage where we do not walk in the freedom that is found in relationship with Jesus. We all have areas where we remain slaves to self and sin. And it is good to examine our heart and motives to see what and where these areas are.
That's where Step 6 comes in. We look at what theses areas are and become ready to have God remove all the defects of character. That's recovery speak for we get ready to have God remove and transform every part of us that is not ruled by loving Him and loving others, that is not compatible with the new creation, that doesn't look and act like Jesus, where our will or selfishness or sin is running the program rather than the Spirit of God. And that's a tall order. That's where it gets serious, because if we're honest, there's a part of us that likes our sin. Maybe not the consequences, but it feels good to be selfish sometimes. Our self doesn't want to be denied or killed so that we can follow Jesus. But let's say we reach that point. We're entirely ready to have God burn away everything that is not love, that is not for Him or of Him, everything that gets in the way of our relationship with Him.
Guess what? Nothing happens. Being ready to have God remove our sin doesn't really do anything about our sin any more than me being entirely ready to have all these flies removed from my home made a single fly vanish. Its necessary, because without being ready for them to be gone we won't take action, but we can't stop with being ready to have them removed or wishing for them to be removed. We must do something about them. We must take action.
We are told in Romans to put to death the deeds of the body. Those would be those character defects and habits that are natural to us without the transformation that comes from being made new in Christ. Our old nature, our selfish, carnal mind must be swatted down like a fly. We take action. Step 7 says that we humbly ask God to remove these defects of character, these areas of sin. But let us not forget that God uses us to accomplish His will. He wants us to work with Him.
I can sit here and listen to my music and pray for God to remove the flies from my house, and most likely I will be distracted by the sound of their buzzing around me until I take more action. The same is true of the sin in my life and the bad habits, patterns of behavior, areas of bondage, and selfishness. I can't defeat the sin in my life any more than I can run around and kill all these flies bare handed. I need God's help and His grace (the power given by and through Jesus to do what I can't do on my own). God gives us the ability to see what needs to be put down so that our new nature in Jesus can rise up in its place. The Spirit provides the spiritual fly swatter and gives us the ability to swing it swiftly, accurately and with enough strength to kill the target. But we have to get up off our knees and go to work.
We can be ready. We can be downright tired of the buzzing of sin around us. We can want it all gone. We can pray and ask God to do something. We can use half measures and stop gaps to try to protect what is precious to us from the sin that we haven't dealt with. But none of that will work until we move out in the power and wisdom that God gives us to take action against everything within us that is contrary to our new nature in Jesus. So pray, then grab that spiritual sin swatter and get to swinging and soon you will see your life become free of that which is not God and your precious treasures will remain unspoiled.
Dead flies putrefy the perfumer’s ointment,
And cause it to give off a foul odor;
So does a little folly to one respected for wisdom and honor.
- Ecclesiastes 10:1
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