daily java: each of us has a demon

Daily Java:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

Each of us has a demon of some kind. It may be a small, nagging one that constantly hits on us. It may be massive and major and is visible to all who see us, even in the middle of the day.

But whatever it is, each of us has one. The writer of Hebrews calls it a sin that so easily trips us up. He may have been talking about sin in general and how it is always so ready to get us. Or  and I think this is it – he may have been talking about some particular sin that is always ready to rear its ugly head.

It may be pornography, something no one but you would know. Computers have made that sin so prevalent that it is in danger of destroying our young men.

It may be pride, getting carried away with praise and adulation. This is common among preachers if they are good at what they do. Any time someone compliments them in any way, no matter how small, BOOM!, there sits the demon ready to chew on you.

It may be greed, it may be power, it may be overeating, it may be drugs or alcohol – any of these things.

But whatever it is, if left unchecked, it may very well send you to hell, overwhelming your positive God-given power and chewing the insides out of you until you become nothing more than a external shadow of what you used to be.

And it will kill you. We have to recognize it, we have to see it and know what it is. Someone once said that recognizing your problem is half the battle. That can be true, although it isn’t all the time. But one thing for sure, you have to know your demon.

I know mine and I hate them because they stand between God and me, between the spirituality and holiness I want to achieve and what I am left with.

However, there is one difference between what we know and what is real. The difference is that the power of God will help you, even when you are too weak to do much yourself. You are caught up in that sin, you hate it and find yourself engaging in it more and more. But you have that power, that grace of God, that strength that is only available from the Lord Almighty himself.

He will help you deal with it and he will help you overcome it, if you want. It may require major surgery to get it done. Jesus himself said that sometimes dealing with this is like plucking out an eye or lopping off a hand.

But sometimes it has to be done. He will give you that strength and he will overcome. The apostle Paul said:

No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. (Romans 8:37-38).

He said that Jesus was greater than any of these things. There is no demon that is able to destroy us as long as we have our eyes on Jesus, our hands fixed firmly on him, our hearts centered on his, our affections set on things above. We will overcome.

The next time the demon comes up, and it will probably be tomorrow or even tonight (they are tireless little creeps), remember that Jesus will carry you through. He overcomes and he saves.

And he delivers us from the powers of sin if we but let him.