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Ants Before a Giant Foot...


Every little boy seems to have stumbled across an ant hill.   Disturb that hill only a bit and you will see hundreds of ants pour from it doing the work they were created to do.  They continue, having little idea that, in one moment, the boy can bring down a larger foot and crush their work into an unrecognizable mass. They are so focused on their existence, that they fail to see the potential for danger around them.

Do we mirror the ants behavior?  Have we become so tuned into ourselves that we fail to see the potential danger occurring all around us?  As believers we are all subject to spiritual warfare, yet how many consider that anything we may be facing can, and often should, be attributed to a work of Satan as compared to 'personality clash', 'poor relationships' or 'people problems.'

Even simply in our day to day, we can mirror the ants before a giant foot. Some of us have adopted carnal thinking that we must pursue certain things in order to find satisfaction.  Our American dream will have us on the quest for more, on the acquisition of stuff, position or power, as compared to following the path that Jesus said, "For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it." Matt 16:25.

I want to spell out the last verse - to save your life you must give it away. To give it away means that you will truly have a life worth coveting.

Its time we examine life below the boot.  I offer you this verse today that gave me pause:

13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil. 17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them. James 4:13-17

Our world teaches us that we are in control, or at minimum we must strive to control every situation.  A believer must come to a radically different conclusion, best expressed through a formally popular song by Steve Curtis Chapman https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz94NQ5HRyk.  This song displays the contrast between living for self and living sold out to Jesus.  It displays the contrast of laying down your life versus trying to script every moment to live a certain image before men.

James lays it out plainly.  It is arrogant to think that we whose life is but a vapor have any control over our long term success.  Everything we have or can gain, as a believer or not, is a gift of heaven.   The difference between a believer and carnal man needs to be seen in this: a believer is vying for eternal life, effecting now and effecting eternity.  The carnal man may achieve satisfaction in this life, but only failure in the next.

As a believer I hear the truth echoed by General Maximus in the movie Gladiator, 
Image result for what we do in life echoes in eternity

So we need disengage self from our day to day and seek the plan of God.  We need avoid the arrogant positioning of ourselves to try and achieve what is God's alone to give.  We must be incredibly careful with our hearts being revealed by our words; especially as they praise ourselves.   The Bible says, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" Luke 6:45.  May God change us to have our words reveal a heart that says "All to Jesus I surrender.  All to Him I freely give..."

Image result for i surrender all

Because God is a God of love, His desire is not to have the works of our hands destroyed.  God's desire is what we build with our hands be driven by His plan, power and presence.  Have those 3 p's expressed in your life and you will know the boot long before the boot knows you.  Try to do it on your own, God will use the boot to correct you.
















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