spiders, snakes, and scorpions

DISCLAIMER: Neither of these analogies are my brain children, but I ran across both of them last night and I wanted to share them, because I think they're pretty smart.

So, without further ado, spiders:



Creepy.

The story goes like this: a regular attendee to a prayer meeting says aloud the same prayer every night- "Lord, take care of the cobwebs in my life" (meaning, of course, those sins that seem to keep reappearing no matter how much or how often house cleaning gets done). Finally, one evening, after he says this prayer, another person in the room speaks up and says, "Lord, DON'T clean the cobwebs in his life. Kill the spider instead."
That is pretty smart. And how often do we act like that? "Lord, forgive my sins, but don't make me change the way I live." Although I doubt anyone would have the audacity to actually pray this, our attitudes often reflect this harsh statement. The symptoms are easily found, but too often we don't take the time to find the source, as this can be more of challenge. And sometimes, even when we find it, it can often be difficult to kill.
So, the challenge: think about the cobwebs in your life, and ask God to reveal to you the spider. Be prepared to search in some dark corners of your life. Then call on the Exterminator and have Him aid you in killing it.


And now, snakes:

And scorpions:



. . . sorry, I couldn't resist :)

This one stems from a parable straight out of the mouth of Jesus himself. The idea is that we need to ask for things from God, and He is happy to give them to us. However, the problem is that sometimes we think we are asking for fish or an egg, and we don't get it. Why? Because God knows that what we are actually asking for is a snake or a scorpion. And this is kind of neat- both fish and eggs provide sustenance. Both snakes and scorpions are capable (depending on the species, of course) to provide a poisonous death. The problem is that we sometimes don't realize that the things we ask for are really snakes in fish mail (to mix analogies). For all we know, the thing(s) we ask for might not be a part of His plan for us, even though we might be convinced about the apparent benefits of whatever it is.
So the challenge here is this: if you've been praying about something pretty consistently and feel like God is not giving you what you think you "need," ask God to show you if what you are asking for is a snake or a scorpion. God will provide; after all, He takes care of the birds and the flowers. That's not to say that anytime we don't get an immediate "yes" from God that it must be a "no," but it may be rather revealing if we start to actually submit to His will and seek to find the things in our life that conform to His plan, rather than thinking we know best and expecting God to be a gift-giving genie.

So there you go. Spiders, snakes, and scorpions.