Yesterday, my dogs started barking and whining. It wasn’t their normal ‘someone is here’ bark so I walked outside to see what was going on. I walked down the stairs and out of my garage, not realizing that I was walking right by the problem. I turn around to see a black snake approximately 6 feet long heading up the stairs towards my door, which was open. Needless to say, I freaked out for a minute! I said “You are not getting in my house! Not today! Not ever!” I grabbed my phone to get help from those inside of the house. My thought was to SHUT the door as quickly as possible and at least keep this snake in the garage. My son arrived and shut the door. The snake then slithered over the side of the steps and disappeared into the garage. Of course, my boys being the tough guys they are, went on a snake hunting mission but they never found the snake. I know a black snake is fine, or whatever people say, but to me, a snake is a snake and I don’t like them at all!!
As I was replaying this event over in my mind and praying that the snake had indeed found a way out of my garage, I realized that so many times we miss the snake. I walked right beside the thing and never saw it. I was so busy looking at the distraction that the dogs were creating, I missed the problem. Isn’t that what happens a lot of the time? We get distracted and allow the enemy to slither right on into our house and we don’t realize it until he bites us! The enemy uses those that are closest to us, our family or our friends, to try to destroy us. He slithers in, undetected, unnoticed, because we are too distracted to even realize it! Unfortunately, I have had this happen more than one time. The door was open and the enemy just slithered right on into my house! But, if the door had been closed, he would’ve never gotten in to start with!!
I truly believe that this is a season that we need to become more vigilant about our homes. The enemy is out to destroy our families anyway that he can. He will use any means neccessary! But, access will be denied if the door is SHUT!!! There are people and situations that never should have been allowed access to our homes but we missed the snake! There are relationships that should have been kept at an ‘outer circle level’ but we allowed them into our ‘inner circle’, only to be bitten in the end. We allow the world’s systems to run our homes and not the order that God established. We fail to set boundaries and guidelines for our children and then wonder why they are out of control.
God has given us the responsibility to guard our homes. It is time to shut the door and say “You are not getting in my house! Not today! Not ever! And for those ‘snakes’ already in my house, it’s time for you to go!!”. Declare like Joshua, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”. It’s time to be vigilant and shut the door and guard our homes BUT it is also time to clean it out. Pray and ask God to begin to show you the ‘snakes’ in your house and run them out with the fire of God! It’s time to take our homes back and keep the ‘snakes’ out for good!!
(I realize that the photo is not the same type of snake that I encountered; however, the fact that it blends in with the environment so well, it is almost unnoticeable, is precisely the reason I used it.)
Multifaceted Praise 