“If you
declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe
and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and
are saved. As Scripture says, ‘Anyone
who believes in him will never be put to shame.’ For there is no difference between Jew and
Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him,
for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved.”
Romans 10:9-13 (NIV)
A few weeks ago, my husband happened across a fascinating exhibit of
nature: a busy spider preparing for a future meal. While cleaning outside, he found a rather
large grasshopper… one that made the unfortunate mistake of getting tangled in a
spider’s web. Seeing an opportunity to teach our children an up-close and
personal science lesson, my husband brought my oldest son over to watch
everything unfold.
As the grasshopper hopelessly tried to wiggle and squirm its way loose
from the trappings of the web, the spider worked tirelessly to secure its
prey. My husband and son watched as the
spider began to spin a cocoon around the poor grasshopper, starting with one
leg and then the next. As my husband
began to explain the grasshopper’s impending demise, my son went into superhero
mode. Emphatically professing the need
to save the defenseless grasshopper, my son immediately grabbed a stick and
went to work. Within seconds, the
grasshopper was freed, the spider was dead and my husband was speechless.
As my husband retold the story to me, I
couldn’t help but laugh… but I also couldn’t help myself from thinking about
Jesus. This story of the spider and the
grasshopper serves as an amazing reminder of the power of our Savior. So many of us find ourselves like the
helpless grasshopper: trapped in seemingly impossible situations with no means of escape. Like my husband, we sit and
wait for the inevitable… forgetting about the power of the Father. We fail to remember that He has the power to
save us; to redeem us; to restore us. Just
as my son worked to free the grasshopper from the trappings of the web, Jesus
frees us from the trappings of this world.
But, the beauty of this analogy resides in a deeper truth: Not only does
Jesus save… He triumphs over evil.
For my son, simply saving the grasshopper was not enough. He wanted to make sure the menacing spider
would never harm another creature… so, with one swift motion, he destroyed
it. And this is the power of the
Savior. It has been foretold that Satan
will be defeated and that our Savior will reign. As Christians, this is the promise we hold on
to… that we cling to. This is what we
must remember when we find ourselves entangled in the webs of life. When we are tempted to quit… to give in, or
to give up… we are to remember the power of our Savior and the undeniable fact that
Jesus can do anything.
Challenge
Sometimes we find ourselves in the trappings of this world, forgetting
that Jesus is the only key to our freedom.
We try everything in our power to release ourselves, but often times, we
only become more entangled. The only key
to loosening the shackles is our complete submission to Jesus. Spend some time
thinking about whether or not there are areas in your life that need to be
submitted to the Father. Ask for His
help… he wants to give it.
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