Mealie bugs are the tiny critters that lay eggs in blobs of white fluff, mostly on the underside of my orchid leaves. By the time I notice them, the damage is already done. They suck the juices from the plant, leaving dry patches that eventually cause the leaves and buds to die.
I spray the white fluff with surgical spirit, which dissolves the fluff, instantly killing the critters hidden inside. Then I rinse the plant to wash away dead bugs and the surgical spirit that also damages the plant.
What a lesson for me about sin! Like the bugs hidden in the fluff, looking quite pretty and harmless, sin hides inside attitudes, and actions that seem harmless enough. However, hidden in the apparently outward acceptability is a deadly “bug” that sucks the life out of us.
The “white lies” we tell to cover our tracks can eventually lead to such confusion that we begin to believe our own lies. Even worse, we become angry people, driving a wedge between ourselves and others because we on the attack to defend our lies.
What of young men who hide their lust behind the disguise of “love”. Manipulation! The vulnerable young girl becomes the “bud” on which the “bug” lays his eggs, leaving a broken young life while he goes on his merry way to find another unsuspecting victim.
Sin has is just like that. Disobedience to God’s Word seems harmless enough. Nothing drastic happens at the time but the effects are long-term and devastating. Our appetite for His peresence and His word slowly diminish as our spritual life is sucked out of us. The process is slow and hardly noticeable at first. A little compromise here and there, then, a little less of God and a little more of me until I finally let go of Him and I fall off the “plant”.
1 John 2:15-17 NIV
[15] “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. [16] For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. [17] The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
The solution is to keep inspecting the plant for the tell-tale evidence of the bug hidden inside. More of the “fluff” of worldly attraction is a sure sign that the bug is biting.
Paul’s counsel is drastic but effective. Apply the surgical Spirit to the infestation.
Romans 8:12-13 NIV
[12] “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. [13] For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.”
No child of God dare host the critters of worldly desires and activities. If we do, we will die. Put to death, by the Spirit’s power in us, those desires, that pull us away from God but choosing to do the right thing, by persusyenylyvchoosingvto seek the Lord and to feed on His Word. David’s solution to the “mealie bug of sin is simple.
Psalms 119:11 NLT
[11]”I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”