In, not Of

I dressed this morning with thought in mind that I'm going to be riding in the car and then running around town this afternoon. For whatever reason, my blue and white shoes were laying in the middle of my floor. Town + blue and white shoes = do-able. I pulled them on.

Kezzia made comment of my sanguine socks over breakfast. I just laughed at her.

However, when I got to work and stepped out of the car, the minute my foot touched the ground I cringed. Because our landscaping around here has been professionally done by rain and melting snow. And all it really is is mud.

Mud + blue and white shoes = ...WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I've gone back and forth between the office about twice today. Muddy, potentially slippery slopes in between. Up and down.

Guess what? My shoes are still white.

I began to think about that a little more as I walked to and fro. Just because of my footwear, I chose every step carefully. I walked ahead, not pausing, but every place I put my foot was chosen beforehand. I walked lightly, unwilling to sink. Unwilling to stop for very long. Unwilling to get the slightest spot on those shoes.

I'll admit, I chuckled. "Why don't I always walk like this? Just because I have on shoes that are okay if they get a little muddy."

That's when it hit me. My white shoes....a white robe. The muddy ground...a sinful earth...

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this,...to keep himself unspotted from the world" (James. 1:27).
"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world" (1 John 2:15).
"I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil" (John 17:15).

On the mud. Not in the mud.

In the world. Not of the world.

The second revelation came from a post online. A quote from inspired writings about the devil. He wants our worship. But he doesn't try to get it from us like he did from Jesus. He doesn't blatantly ask for it. Instead, he gives us "gifts."

The devil is more determined to get me down than I could imagine.
His all-absorbing interest is how to ruin my life.
He just wants me dead.

But how often do I willingly accept the gifts he places in my path for my ruin?

How often do I, like the fated traveler in the old story, have compassion on a serpent and pick up and place it against my heart--only to be bitten in the end?

I look at this world and see something frightening. Everything that he can, he's using against me. In every way possible.

BUT.

But. I don't have to be overcome. I don't have to go down. I don't have to get muddy. I don't have to...

Because 2000 years ago, the Son of David crushed the serpent's head. The bite to His heel didn't remain. He is now the Supreme Ruler.

And He calls me, "My Child."

This morning I got a wake up call. Two of them.

It's time to stop picking up the devil's serpents.
It's also time to clean my shoes.