God’s way is perfect.
….All the Lord’s promises prove true.
….He is a shield for all who look to him for protection.
For who is God except the Lord?
….Who but our God is a solid rock? Psalm 18:30-31 (NLT)
Luke 11:24-26 (<<click to read the passage)
Mosquitos, the scourge of the earth! Do you know anyone who would argue with that statement! Now they are a beneficial source of nutrition for animals on the lower levels of the food chain, such as fish, bats, and birds but for human beings, they are an irritant at best and a carrier of death for some, at worst!
(A little side note: only a few hundred of the 3,500 species of mosquitoes, from various parts of the world, bite or bother humans. In fact, only female mosquitoes bite humans. Males lack the parts to penetrate human skin.)
Because we have had an excessively wet last few months, our mosquito population – at least around my house – has exploded! As soon as the sun starts to go down, we head indoors…either that or become unwilling blood donors! Part of our problem is that a good part of our lot is low lying with an underlying layer of clay. Water does not dissipate very quickly. It would take an exorbitant amount of landfill and drainage tile to dry us out.
We have a drainage ditch that cuts into our lot from the field across the road. That ditch is almost impossible to keep under control and is a battle all summer long.
A couple of years ago we paid a young man to clear all the vegetation out of it, hoping the water would flow through and or evaporate to eliminate it from collecting in stagnant pools – the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos!
If I had kept up with it, it might have worked but, alas, I did not and it is as bad as ever! The front portion of the ditch is cut down as of yesterday but there is nothing to keep the water from pooling…it is just a long breeding ground!
My study Bible* had this to say about these two verses from Luke 11,
Jesus was illustrating an unfortunate human tendency: Our desire to reform often does not last long. In Israel’s history, almost as soon as a good king would pull down idols, a bad king would set them up again. It is not enough to be emptied of evil; we must then be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s new purpose in our life
When we ask Jesus to forgive us, the sin in our souls is irradicated. The Holy Spirit comes to take up residence to help and guide us along our way. But part of our responsibility is to listen to His guidance and keep our souls clear of the debris that the things of this world leave behind. If we don’t take care, them “skeeters” will come back with a vengeance…and those “skeeters” all carry death!
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God [that is, His remarkable, overwhelming gift of grace to believers] is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (AMP)
*Life Application Study Bible New Living Translation
June 17th, 2020, Wed, 7:36 pm
