When you give a mouse a cookie...I have no idea what happens because I've never read the book (don't judge). But, I would imagine that the answer would have something to do with the mouse wanting more and more. I mean, the same happens with me when you give me tortilla chips. The bowl arrives at the table and I will immediately ask for queso. Before you know it I need corn AND flour tortillas to dip and I'm going to go ahead and need some salsa, a couple of tacos, maybe some nachos, and definitely a plate of enchiladas. Am I right? Am I the only one with that progression of Mexican food? Did you know that our enemy is the same way with our lives? He finds a way in, like a mouse that searches for any entrance into your home. He can go unnoticed for a while and take up residence in the walls, being careful to leave no trace. But then you begin to notice little pellets on the counter top or under the sink, or maybe in the back of a drawer.
It begins to become obvious that there is a problem. Perhaps one day you even witness the little (or huge) thing scurry across the room, or worse, you begin to smell the remains of what once lived in your walls. Once we have found the enemy creeping into our lives, how do we decide to handle it? Genesis 4:7 says that "sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it." We must rule over our sin, our anger, our anxiety, our fears, insert your hang-up here. I struggle most of the time with taking my thoughts captive. I let the enemy in through that tiny crack that I don't even know is there. I don't notice him for a while and he starts leaving little pellets in my mind of lies that are so close to the truth that I believe them, and before I know it, he has taken up residence in my walls. 2 Corinthians 10:5 may possibly be one of the single most important scriptures in my life. It's the one that reminds me to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ". If I take the thought captive, but don't make it obedient to Christ, then I'm just capturing that mouse and taking it out to the garden where it can find another crack and come right back inside of my house. I have to make the thought obedient to Christ so that it can no longer preside over my mind. The same can be said for sin. If we let a little bit of sin in, if we give a mouse a cookie, that sin will take up more and more space in our lives. We must rule over it, or be ruled by it.
"What shall we say then? Are we to continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Romans 6: 1-4 If we are dead to sin, we no longer walk in it. We set the mouse traps (spend time in the word and in prayer), we place the bait (suited up in the armor of God, anticipating a battle), and we patch up the holes and cracks that let the mice in (demolish strongholds of the enemy). For if we "walk by the spirit, we will not gratify the desires of the flesh" Galatians 5:6. Christ did not die for us to merely change us, but to exchange us. He takes our old, sinful ways and makes us like him. We are made new by the blood of Jesus. I don't know about you, but to me that means that my old self isn't just repaired and has the cracks and scars to show it; it means that I am a new life being made perfect in Jesus Christ. No scars, no cracks. No mouse is getting into my house.
Join Amanda and Kristy for an entertaining story about finding a mouse in the house and how God used that to bring some spiritual truth to light. You can listen to this weeks podcast on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, iTunes, or right here on our website: www.thesendhelppodcast.com/podcast