HEART MATTERS
“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” 1st Corinthians 10:12
One of the first scary movies I saw as a child was quite the thriller. When a Stranger Calls was about a babysitter who after tucking the kids in for the night began receiving menacing calls from a man who repeatedly asks her if she’s checked on the kids. For some reason she continues watching t.v. and never goes upstairs to check on the children. But the calls continue. Eventually they become so troublesome that she decides to contact the police department. The climax of the story happened when the officer called her back to tell her he traced the call. Anyone who saw the movie (or movies, it was remade in 2006) remembers the sheer horror we all felt as the police officer told the main character the call was coming from right inside the house! Everyone watching the movie felt the adrenaline and the terror the young lady would have felt in that moment. Before receiving that unbelievable and shocking revelation she had to have had some sense of security in the shelter of the home. As she processed that the threat had indeed become viable she must have believed with the doors locked and the police on alert she had a good fighting chance. After all in order to get to her and the kids the perpetrator would first have to breach the locked doors or windows. Little did she know the psychopathic murdered was right in the same house with her all along! He had already started his murder spree and he fully intended on making her his next victim. Up until that call from the police officer the whole time she thought the threat was coming from the outside. What made this movie so terrifying was that the young lady’s worst enemy was right there inside the house with her the entire time!
Did you know that all believers have an enemy within? A serious threat is lurking in really close proximity ready to pounce at any time. There’s a psychopath made up of all the sinful predispositions and habits of our old man ready to wreak havoc and wreck our lives. It’s called the sin nature-aka “our flesh” or “the old man.” He hangs in the rafters of our minds and in the crevices of our hearts just waiting for the right opportunity to make himself known. He ready’s himself for his big reveal when our weaknesses begin to cause us to cave and we find ourselves ripe with a willingness to rebel against our God. Suppressed by the Spirit our sin nature is desperate for his chance to have his way. Once our nemesis believes the odds are in his favor and everything has culminated according to his liking he steps forward and takes his stand. Just as quickly as our sin nature appears out in the open the assault occurs. When we’re able to fight just enough to come to our senses we’re usually shocked and appalled by our Un-Christ-like behavior. We can’t believe that we-new creations in Christ Jesus-just acted like the devil. We grieve over the casualties we left in our wake-compromised relationships, loss spiritual fruit, and ruined testimonies.