Delays and the Portia Spider (part 4)

Delays, detours, and distractions. The devil will use anything to discourage us or get us "off track" as a Christian.
I have a 4th detour/delay to share with you--this time it is a delay that WE can cause in our lives, so we have to look out for the danger signs.

Recently I saw a commercial where a teenage girl is driving safely. Her phone is in a cellphone holder, she has her seatbelt on, and she is obviously driving at a safe speed. Then her cell phone beeps, alerting her of a text. She picks up the phone, smiles at the text, and crashes. The commercial states that the average text takes 5 seconds to read and begin a reply. Everything was going fine. She started her journey prepared. But she was distracted for a short time, and it killed her.

The PORTIA SPIDER is a devious little furry arachnid found in parts of ASIA, AFRICA, and AUSTRALIA. My students and I have discovered this year that it seems the most dangerous things of the world always find their way to Australia! The Portia Spider looks like every other "international spider"--typical scary-looking eyes, eight furry legs in shades of brown and black, and an evil mouth ready to devour something. However, its deadly feature doesn't lie in its looks--it lies in his deception. This spider mimics a wounded, trapped insect on his web, and distracts his victim. He is all about deceit and trickery. He imitates vibrations of other insects and sneaks up on his chosen prey. In other words, this spider is a CREEPER!

Remember that we have established there will be DELAYS in our lives. Sometimes we are going about life happily--and BAM! We hit that pot hole and it throws us off the road of life for a while; but sometimes we get distracted with minor things that cost us majorly.

Ephesians 6:11 says, "Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."

In college I learned that sometimes we just give the devil too much credit. We blame him for everything. HE is out there, of course, ordering his own demons to harass Christians to get them off the path of serving God. But maybe we need to just stop giving him so much homage by IGNORING his distractions along the way. God gives us signals, warnings. He put them in His Word. If we "armor up" with His way from HIS Word, we won't get so easily distracted. We'll be ready.
The cell phone commercial reminded me of a couple of things.

1. Don't text and drive.
Christian, don't do other things when it is time to "armour up." Cindy Schaap use to say it to us in college: "Choose your Bible time, and don't let anything get in the way." How can we help people spiritually if we don't have anything new and fresh to give them?

2. The teenager looked down.
We can't look down. Ever. Keep your eyes on your goal. Distractions make us look anywhere and everywhere except at the issue at hand. Recognize it as a distraction. No Christian is exempt from this.

3. The girl picked up the beeping phone.
Just because you looked down for a moment doesn't mean you have to act on it. Once you pick up the distraction, now you have to make another decision: to answer or not. Don't put yourself in that position. Whatever it is, it will beep and probably loudly.

4. She STAYED distracted.
Miss Hibbard used to drill it into the girls in Hammond, and I hope I say it in my world of teenagers enough for them to believe it. "There is always a way out." If you find yourself off on a goose chase right now in your life, recognize it and get back to the path. There is always a way out for us---God's forgiveness. When we stay too long in the sin, it WILL kill us.

Help someone with this today!
Oh, one last thing. There IS ONE spider that always catches the PORTIA in his act and defeats him. It is the EURYATTUS spider. He has fantastic vision and spots the Portia before it can "woo" him into the web, and then he charges the Portia himself! "There is always a way out."
Have a great day!