[349 words]
Once there was a little fly who saw a spider’s web in the corner of the room. “I’ll fly away from it,” he thought; “For if I should get one foot in it I might get two, and soon I would be caught all together.” Wasn’t this little fly a wise fellow? In the same room was a little girl who had broken a vase. Something whispered in her ear, “Hide the pieces and don’t tell mother.” “No, no!” she said. “If I should deceive mother once, I might again, and pretty soon I should be telling lies. I won’t begin.” Wasn’t she a wise little girl?
Notice these words from Hebrews 12:1-2: “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, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Scripture teaches us that we can see the weight of sin that so easily fools us. James 1:20 tells us that we are temped in very specific ways based on our own lusts. Temptation is not the sin (James 1:21), but we know that we can beat sin. First Corinthians 10:14 declares that we must not let life be an excuse because everyone has faced temptation throughout the history of mankind. We are not to act like we are the only ones who have to deal with temptation, but we must live in a way that helps us watch out for the traps of sin.
The little fly and the little girl both understood that if we get too close to the trap then we will be caught. We as God’s children must learn and understand that Christ is calling us away from the traps of life into an everlasting home.
Jonathan Burns
Findlay church of Christ
Sparta, TN