Proverbs 4

We play with sin like a child plays with matches.

We rub against the world, and it feels good. “No harm,” we say.

So, we venture a little closer, excusing habits and actions that have the potential to maim and destroy.  “All in good fun,” we say.

But we don’t see the ignition of the fire that begins to consume our passion for God.  We don’t smell the smoke that warns us that something is not right.  We don’t recognize the slow building of heat that renders us spiritually disabled.  We don’t understand the tentacles of sin’s effect that reach out to capture our thoughts, our attitudes, our hearts, our actions, our children.

Just as a frog in a pot of slowly heating water, we gradually acclimate to the changing temperature until we realize too late that we have played with fire and the fire won.

Proverbs 3:1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. (ESV)

Deuteronomy 4:9 Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons;

I Kings 8:61 Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.