8.17.07 "Stupid Cat"

I used to have a cat and his name was Peter. He always meowed and shed his long hair all over the place, which caused me to have to grab a lint brush in the morning before leaving for work. I’d find hairballs on the carpet for me when I got home from work or he’d scratch at my furniture. One time, he even made his way back behind the television where he managed to unplug my cable. This led to making my DVR unable to record my precious 24 episode (to this day, I swear he did it on purpose). Soon came the day when I gave Peter the boot. I had enough.
If you’re a Christian today, you can relate with this situation. At one point, you had enough of Satan and sin and how the combination of the two continually messed with your life. And you gave sin the boot when you asked Jesus Christ to be your Lord and personal Savior. Unlike Peter, sin is able to find it’s way back into our lives and our hearts. But it doesn’t belong there anymore. The truth is, once your give your life to Christ, there’s no room for sin because God is big enough to occupy all of the space in your heart. However, we continue to let sin through the door.

Why? Because Satan is a jealous ex-boyfriend. We used to date him through sin but we broke up with him because we met a new Man. One who was able to provide for us and give us the love and attention we craved. Like so many other jealous ex-boyfriends, Satan wants to win us back. And he’ll do anything he can, even attack our new Man, to do it. He’ll lie and cheat, he’ll scheme and connive to turn our friends against us—anything that will make us leave our Man and go back with him.

Sure, that’s a silly way to picture it but it’s very true. Satan and our old sinful ways are “best buds.” And it’s a lot easier for us to hang out with them than it is to stay faithful to our new Man. That’s just how it is because that’s who we are: sinners. Or are we?

Galatians 2:20 says, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” When you give up sin and take in Christ, you no longer live—you don’t exist. You don’t exist because Christ has taken over you.

So Christian, when you wake up every morning, be sure to “kick the cat out of the house,” and ask God to help you stand strong against your sinful nature—because that’s just Satan trying to get a date.

-NW

Dear Master, Savior of my out-of-control life, you desire and deserve all of me, so take my heart, Lord, take it. Let my old way of life by crucified with you and I will live by faith, responding to your love for me. Comforted by your peaceful stability, I fall in love with you all over again. Amen.