Close the Door!

We bought our first house when we moved to Louisville.  We purchased a small home in the city, so our house barely had a yard at all.  Our little neighborhood was old but quaint.  I enjoyed running through our neighborhood each day after work.  I felt pretty safe running alone, but as a young female, my safety was always in question.  Our neighbors had a big Labrador Retriever named Jack that loved running with me and that made me feel very safe.  One particular day we were on the other side of the neighborhood when Jack took off towards a house across the street.  No one appeared to be outside but the front door was open.  I was calling his name but he kept on running toward the house.  To my surprise he ran right through the open front door and inside the house!  I continued running and within a few minutes Jack was running along side of me again.

I have laughed about that scenario for several years.  I felt bad that Jack ran inside these strangers home while in my care.  I do feel somewhat responsible for allowing him to do this although he would not heed my voice.  Then my mind keeps thinking about the fact that they had left their door open.  It was their mistake, or perhaps their bad decision.  Anything can run through our front door when we leave our door open.  I keep thinking about the family inside when they heard heavy panting to turn the corner of their family room to find a large eighty pound Lab standing in the room.  Fortunately for that family he was a friendly dog and ran off when they shewed him away!

Well, this is no different than our spiritual lives.  We must keep ourselves safe from the crack in the door that Satan loves to stick his whole body through.  When we watch movies we should not watch, read books we should not read, or go places we should not go, we open our front door.   Satan loves the opportunities to influence the way we think, speak, and act without us even knowing what is happening.  Satan is smarter than any human, and he has sneaky ways of getting in.  He makes us think we are only being entertained or that we are never affected by this world as Christians.  What we fail to realize is that when we are not filling ourselves with the Holy Spirit, we are filling ourselves with something.  Many of us have our front door wide open and we have no idea.

“Thank you Father for showing me when I have my front door open.  Many times I compromise Your Word for things of this world and find myself discouraged and defeated. Please keep me alert and ready at all times as I hurry through life, that I never forget to close my front door. Amen.”

2 Timothy 2:24-26 “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,
and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”