Call the Bug Man

We moved into our house about 9 months ago and from day one was have been fighting to keep these little tiny nasty "German roaches" from taking over. It might seem for weeks that they are gone, then all of a sudden I start seeing a few of them again. Our house has been sprayed by the bug man more times than I can count. Seeing them in the laundry room, or bathroom is pretty disgusting, but the even nastier thing is what happens after he comes; I find tons and tons of dead bugs everywhere, the kitchen counters, the pantry, all over the house. That means that the day before the bug man came, those same bugs were alive in those same places, hiding out of site just waiting for the lights to go out so they could make their selves at home. So NASTY! (Please don't think we are dirty gross people, because we try hard to keep things clean and sanitary, but these little pests are more than we can handle sometimes. LOL!)

This week as I was reading in Ephesians I came across a passage that reminded me of my little roaches. "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." (5:8-13)

All of us have things in our life that we would rather keep hidden in the dark, secrets from others, secrets from God. We all have our roaches; our sins, our anger, our unforgivness. And as long as we keep the lights off they are free to roam and live and devour whatever they want. That is good news for the roaches but very bad news for our hearts' condition. God wants so badly for us to allow him to shed light in those dark places in our hearts so that he can exterminate the bugs and replace them with the "fruit of light"; good things that honor and please him. Jesus said "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." (John 8:12) Jesus longs to light the way for us and he is the only one who can. Without him we will be walking in darkness and also be full of darkness. I don't know about you but after just a few cloudy days I am longing for the sunshine. We are not like the roaches who prefer darkness to light, we are made to be Jesus followers made to thrive in the Light. The concealing effects of darkness maybe lull us into thinking everything is OK, but we are only deceiving ourselves. Roaches won't go away on their own, they are persistent pests, they reproduce quickly. True peace and freedom will only come when we open our whole lives to examination by the Light and let him clean house, after which we will be able to figure out what pleases God. And sense pleasing God is what we are made for, the roach free, lighted life is the most satisfying one out there! I am calling the bug man again today to come exterminate another generation of gross insects from my house. And I am praying that I will have the bold faith to allow Jesus to continual shine into my heart and keep the roaches out of his home in me!