Just remember to keep your eyes on the trail ahead, and check the back trail every now and then.”
–Cliff Hudgins (Viejo and the Lost Child)
“The little foxes are ruining the vineyards. Catch them, for the grapes are all in blossom.”
–Song of Solomon 2:15 (Living Bible)
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“Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?” — Psalm 49:5, NKJV
I had a Boston Terrier when I was a kid. He loved to run and try to catch your pant leg, but often he would grab hold of your leg. Not fun. Then when I was older and married, we had a Beagle. She was a fast, happy dog who would run and snatch the slippers off your feet when you walked by. Here, in the Psalm, we see that it is iniquity that is nipping at our heels.
There is no Goliath in front of us. There is no storm coming in to frighten us, or a battle that is raging, but some snipping at our heels. “Temptation is very often indirect,” states Percy Ainsworth–ain’t that the truth. Remember, the devil sets snares, and is adept at covering his attacks. He often is lurking around, not doing anything, just waiting. Waiting for that moment of weakness, or a time when we drop our guard. He doesn’t make a frontal attack for he knows we can see that coming.
Ainsworth writes, “The stronger a man is, the more subtle and difficult are the ways of sin, as it seeks to enter and to master his life. There are many temptations that never face us, and never give us a chance of facing them. They follow us. We can hear their light footfall and their soft whisperings, but the moment we turn round upon them they vanish.” The problem is, they don’t vanish for good. When we relax our search, when our vigilance falters and we do not keep an eye on our back trail they show up again, snapping, snarling, and trying to grab at our heels.
Have you ever noticed how hard it is at times to get a tune out of your mind? That’s the same way these imps operate. Sometimes a suggestion comes, you cast it away, but it doesn’t completely leave. You pray, you sing a song, they go for a while, but soon you hear the snapping of their teeth. Those thoughts, at times, seem to haunt us. We’re used to wrestling, to fighting the fight in hand-to-hand combat, but these…these imps are different. They snap and are gone. We try to trample them, but too late, they are gone. These imps take time and patience and prayer to get rid of. “If we cannot prevent sin from following us, we can at least prevent ourselves from turning and following it.” (Ainsworth)
We choose our path, and we determine our course. As we continue in our upward trek to our heavenly home, “these evil things fall off and drop behind.” (Ainsworth) As we walk the pilgrim pathway, understand that “the battle with sin is not an incident in the Christian life; it is the abiding condition of it.” (Ainsworth) There will be obstacles in the way, mountains to climb, gorges to cross, that is the way of life. There will be storms and battles in which we may have a Goliath or some other giant to slay, however, as Ainsworth writes, “there are others we have to outgrow. They are overcome, not by any one supreme assertion of the will, but by the patient cultivation of all the loftiest and most wholesome and delicate and intensely spiritual modes of feeling and of being.”
That old sin, that old temptation may change forms. It may be like cutting off the head of Hydra. Today, the temptation is anger, and it is conquered, cut off. The next day you are in despair, a new imp nipping at your heels. That is taken care of but the morrow will present bitterness, or regret, or, or, or… Maybe, just maybe, since these are not sins that reveal our need of strength, but just maybe “the sin that dogs our steps has a deeper lesson to teach us–our need of heart-deep holiness.” (Ainsworth) See, that is the purpose of sanctification, not to clear the path ahead but to quiet the dogs snapping at our heels. Ainsworth says, “only purity of character can rid us of the persistent haunting peril of the sin that plucks at the skirt of life.”
“More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.”
–Eliza E. Hewitt
——————————
“Why should I fear in the days of evil, when the iniquity at my heels surrounds me?” — Psalm 49:5, NKJV
I had a Boston Terrier when I was a kid. He loved to run and try to catch your pant leg, but often he would grab hold of your leg. Not fun. Then when I was older and married, we had a Beagle. She was a fast, happy dog who would run and snatch the slippers off your feet when you walked by. Here, in the Psalm, we see that it is iniquity that is nipping at our heels.
There is no Goliath in front of us. There is no storm coming in to frighten us, or a battle that is raging, but some snipping at our heels. “Temptation is very often indirect,” states Percy Ainsworth–ain’t that the truth. Remember, the devil sets snares, and is adept at covering his attacks. He often is lurking around, not doing anything, just waiting. Waiting for that moment of weakness, or a time when we drop our guard. He doesn’t make a frontal attack for he knows we can see that coming.
Ainsworth writes, “The stronger a man is, the more subtle and difficult are the ways of sin, as it seeks to enter and to master his life. There are many temptations that never face us, and never give us a chance of facing them. They follow us. We can hear their light footfall and their soft whisperings, but the moment we turn round upon them they vanish.” The problem is, they don’t vanish for good. When we relax our search, when our vigilance falters and we do not keep an eye on our back trail they show up again, snapping, snarling, and trying to grab at our heels.
Have you ever noticed how hard it is at times to get a tune out of your mind? That’s the same way these imps operate. Sometimes a suggestion comes, you cast it away, but it doesn’t completely leave. You pray, you sing a song, they go for a while, but soon you hear the snapping of their teeth. Those thoughts, at times, seem to haunt us. We’re used to wrestling, to fighting the fight in hand-to-hand combat, but these…these imps are different. They snap and are gone. We try to trample them, but too late, they are gone. These imps take time and patience and prayer to get rid of. “If we cannot prevent sin from following us, we can at least prevent ourselves from turning and following it.” (Ainsworth)
We choose our path, and we determine our course. As we continue in our upward trek to our heavenly home, “these evil things fall off and drop behind.” (Ainsworth) As we walk the pilgrim pathway, understand that “the battle with sin is not an incident in the Christian life; it is the abiding condition of it.” (Ainsworth) There will be obstacles in the way, mountains to climb, gorges to cross, that is the way of life. There will be storms and battles in which we may have a Goliath or some other giant to slay, however, as Ainsworth writes, “there are others we have to outgrow. They are overcome, not by any one supreme assertion of the will, but by the patient cultivation of all the loftiest and most wholesome and delicate and intensely spiritual modes of feeling and of being.”
That old sin, that old temptation may change forms. It may be like cutting off the head of Hydra. Today, the temptation is anger, and it is conquered, cut off. The next day you are in despair, a new imp nipping at your heels. That is taken care of but the morrow will present bitterness, or regret, or, or, or… Maybe, just maybe, since these are not sins that reveal our need of strength, but just maybe “the sin that dogs our steps has a deeper lesson to teach us–our need of heart-deep holiness.” (Ainsworth) See, that is the purpose of sanctification, not to clear the path ahead but to quiet the dogs snapping at our heels. Ainsworth says, “only purity of character can rid us of the persistent haunting peril of the sin that plucks at the skirt of life.”
“More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me.”
–Eliza E. Hewitt