The picture shows a wonderful rose, with many colours. There is much nectar in this flower, much food for the insects. But you also see a fly has been caught in a simple single strand of a web. Desperately trying to free itself the fly struggled for about 30 minutes before it stopped moving and perhaps the venom from the spider took effect and he was cocooned in web.
Sometimes in life things distract us from our purpose. In this day and age it is no wonder. There are too many things going on in our lives that it is not surprising that so many people are going off work on stress, or people are getting stress related illnesses. I have seen the effects of stress on the mental strength of people. What were normally strong characters are suddenly needing help and can not see the way out.
We need to be aware that sometimes things that can bring us joy can also lead to our ensnarement, perhaps one little strand at a time until we are surrounded by the trap.
Till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
This proverb warns us that perhaps we will not know that such things will ensnare us until it is too late.
But is it?
Many times through the day God reminds me of my sins, but just like the stern warning yesterday from Ezekiel 37:11-14 God doesn’t just leave us high and dry. He provides an answer. That answer was Jesus Christ, He has already paid for our sins, but I believe we do need to offer them up to him and repent.
Repent means to change our ways. We have to change otherwise it would all be for nothing. Otherwise I would just keep going out and sinning thinking “Oh it doesn’t matter I’m a Christian so Jesus will forgive me!” It doesn’t work like that – God chips the sin off and it hurts because we naturally cling to things of this earth.
This morning as I awoke I heard a voice say John 4 – the story about the Samaritan women who met Jesus at the well.
13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
I have just copied a small portion of this story but the whole chapter is wondrous and revealing. What hit me this morning when reading this was that Jesus tells her that He can give her some water that will allow her to never thirst again. We are talking spiritually, never needing to search for any other God or reason about life but Jesus. But when she says “Sir, give me this water”, Jesus promptly replies by calling her to account for her sinful life.
What does this tell me? Well if we want the Holy Spirit, the everlasting spring, fountain of water, then we must be called to account for our sins. We need to recognise that we have a sinful nature, but the joyous news is that through Jesus we have salvation, we have release from the trap. Not only is he calling us to account for them, he is also taking them onto his shoulders and with every nail that was hammered into his body, with every drop of blood, He has already paid for these sins. We only need to change, to repent.
Jesus is the gardener who would help this helpless fly, he in effect stepped into the flower, released the creature and then stretched his hands out onto the web and let the punishment unfold. He did this all for us before he was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit – the everlasting fountain of life.
Dear Lord, we all have a sinful life. Many of us sin in different ways but all sin. There is none that can stand up against your Son in His holiness and sinlessness. Father send your son onto this earth to seek out the sinners and convert their hearts, and then send your Holy Spirit to guide them into a better way, the only way through Jesus Christ your Son.
Amen
365 Exhortations 