Today’s Verse—Romans 6:12
Don’t let sin rule your body, which is
going to die. Don’t obey its evil longings.
MASH was a television comedy show made in the 1970s about the Korean War. In one episode, a Korean boy accidentally wandered into a minefield. Hundreds of deadly mines had been hidden just below the surface of the ground, ready to explode if anybody stepped on them.
A doctor named Trapper, who loved the boy, saw him and ran to get him. His friends yelled, “Stop!” Trapper stopped because he knew that the farther he ran into the minefield, the more dangerous it was. He stayed motionless while another man ran to get a map of the minefield so he could tell where all the mines were. Meanwhile, everyone shouted to the boy in Korean, “Stay right there! Don’t move!”
When the man with the map returned, they discovered a very scary fact. Trapper was surrounded by mines. One step in any direction, and he would be dead. They called on a helicopter to come to the field, and Trapper and the boy climbed a rope ladder, got into the helicopter, and flew away. Until the rescue, though, they both had to stay perfectly still.
Do you ever get the feeling you’re in a minefield, surrounded by sin? With stuff that’s on TV, on the Internet, and on the covers of magazines at the store, and even with other kids talking on the school bus, it isn’t hard to find sin. One step in any direction, and you could easily get caught up in it, or destroyed by it.
In the book of Genesis, God spoke to Cain. Cain was the son of Adam and Eve and the brother of Abel. God gave him this advice: “Do what is right. Then you will be accepted. If you don’t do what is right, sin is waiting at your door to grab you. It longs to have you. But you must rule over it” (4:7). But Cain didn’t listen to God. He got jealous of Abel and ended up killing him. Sin got hold of Cain, and he was never the same again.
Wandering with Wooton
So I have this friend. Let’s call him Wooton for short. He sometimes has a problem with eating too much, especially when it comes to foods that have sugar as the main ingredient. This problem is called gluttony, and the Bible says it’s a sin. Once when my friend was in high school and was nervous about a math test, he accidentally ate three boxes of snack cakes in ten minutes. That was four snack cakes per minute. Or maybe three. I don’t know. Young Wooton failed the math test. Now when he feels like eating too much, he prays or sings a worship song. It’s hard to think about food when you’re also thinking about God.
You have to make a choice. When you are faced with an opportunity to sin, you can step out on your own and play around with it—and you’ll usually fail. Or you can stay perfectly still for a moment and pray, asking God for help, and He will rescue you. The important thing to remember is that you cannot fight off Satan by yourself. Satan is strong. You need to look to God to be your Protector.
Daily Challenge
Make a list of things you struggle with. Mark down the sins in your life that need to be addressed. Pray about them.
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Overcoming Sin Theme Memory Verse—Romans 3:23–24
Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory. The free gift of God’s grace makes all of us right with him. Christ Jesus paid the price to set us free.