October 15, 2024

The Church Mouse: The Hidden Hook

“Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”  – Isaiah 55:7

I’ve had some down time this past week and I watched some old Andy Griffin shows. Here’s a part from one of these shows. 

When a hobo told Andy he should just let Opie “decide for himself” how he wanted to live… Andy had these words of Mayberry wisdom. 

No, I’m afraid it don’t work that way. You can’t let a young’n decide for himself. He’ll grab at the first flashy thing with shiny ribbons on it. Then, when he finds out there’s a hook in it, it’s too late. Wrong ideas come packaged with so much glitter that it’s hard to convince them that something might be bad for them. All a parent can do is say ‘Wait’ and ‘Trust me’ and try to keep temptation away.”

These words work not only for Mayberry but  for us Christians for as well. God is our parent! And we are his children. He loves us and wants what is best for us. 

We often have something catch our eye! We just have to have it. We most often do not think about the consequences that go with it. SIN! Yes we are so intent on having our heart desire that we fail to see that sin is involved.  

Then once Satan has us on the hook we slowly begin to realize that we have made a mistake in running after the bright shiny thing. We struggle to get out of the mess we’re in. We never think of asking for help. We don’t want anyone to know we have done wrong and sinned. We often just keep digging ourselves deeper and deeper in our sin. 

We fail to realize that God is patiently waiting for us to call on Him to come to our rescue. Satan tells us that no one will want us or will care about us after our mistakes. He tries his best to hang on to us, by have us downgrade ourselves. 

But we must remember is that God loves us. There is nothing we can do or say to make him stop loving us. We just need to call out to him and ask for forgiveness. He is waiting for us. 

Prayer – Father God we know that you love us and we thank you for that. Help Father to remember this at all times. Forgive us when we sin and help us to know that we need you in all situations in our lives. Amen 

the Church Mouse

Work hard; Pray harder.