Where I Found Him Today....The Continuing Saga of 'Illusions'

Have you been where I have been? I'm sure most, if not all, of you have. And where might that place be? The place of failing to do the right thing that you knew you should do as a Christian. Yesterday I did something that smote my heart with regret the minute I did it. I cried out to God and told Him I was so sorry....and that I wanted to get control of that "besetting sin" once and for all. You know what yours is. It's probably not the same as mine. But they're all sin and they all plague us to no end. Whether it's our temper, our appetite, our tongue......or whether it goes deeper into some type of addiction.....we all have something that keeps rearing it's ugly head. Especially when I am trying so hard to stay in God's Word and practice what it says there I find the devil comes along and works extra hard to pull down all that the Lord is doing.

I thought about a conversation I had with someone not long ago. She had come to me for counseling about family problems and confided that she had trouble with a recurring sin in her life. Something that was really causing havoc and permanent damage to both her and her children. She said that she had been a Christian for a long time but that she just could not seem to get victory over this particular sin. With every intention of honesty and helpfulness I said to her..."You CAN overcome this with God's help! The God I serve is bigger than this thing that has you bound!" And I believe that with all my heart. And yet.....and yet, when Satan comes along and tempts me with something that to some might seem small.....I fall flat on my face and give in! Where is that big God I claim to serve? He's right where He always is and as big as ever! I'm just not trusting Him and staying "focused" on Him as I should.

As I did my Bible study this morning I told the Lord how sorry I was that I didn't take my own advice and had taken my eyes off Him and taken Him off the throne of my heart. In a few minutes B. came out with his glass of cranberry juice to join me on the deck in the cool of the morning. The first thing he said was, "Where's your little bird?" I immediately said, "WHAT DO YOU MEAN???" (If you have been reading my blog for very long you will know which little bird he was talking about. The one that my friend gave me after my "Illusions" post. She gave it to me so that I would not be deceived anymore when I looked at the sand rock which only had the illusion of being a bird.)
B. just shrugged his shoulders and pointed over to the railing where the sand rock was sitting all alone. I couldn't believe my eyes! I had been out there a good twenty minutes eating breakfast and doing my Bible study and had not even noticed he was gone! It's a wonder that a fly or a mosquito didn't fly into my mouth I stood there with it wide open for so long! I could not believe the little bird was gone. What could have happened to him? He's made of way too heavy material to just blow off! I got out of my chair and looked over the railing onto the ground and there he lay on his side! B. said maybe a live bird knocked him off. I think maybe a squirrel. SOMETHING did anyway! Because I know he didn't fly down there by himself!

And then I thought about what I had told that girl not long ago....."My God is bigger than that!" ...when talking about her getting victory over her sin. Maybe I said it unknowingly in a self-righteous way. Maybe not. I just know it has come back to haunt me. I thought about how I had taken God down from the high place in my heart. He is too heavy to just fall off or be blown off.....I had to have moved him. I went down and picked up my little bird, wiped the grass off and set him back in his rightful place next to the sand rock. Now there will be another thing I will be thinking of when I look out my window and see him. I will remember that my God IS bigger than whatever it is that tempts me but that I MUST keep Him in His rightful place in my heart and mind.

"Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us," Hebrews 12: 1

May God bless you today.....

Marilyn