Every year, over $5 BILLION dollars in damage to homes is caused by a single source. It isn’t the big things like hurricanes, tornadoes, and fires. No, this destructive force is tiny. Almost imperceptible until it’s too late: termites. These tiny little critters show up at your house, they don’t knock on your door or ask for permission to come in. They invite themselves, stay for as long as they like (or until you evict them by force), and cause catastrophic levels of damage. 

However, there is an even greater destructive force in our lives. It doesn’t often start out very big, maybe even imperceptible. It quietly takes over and can destroy every aspect of your life. This destructive force is sin. That’s why God was so explicit and clear about dealing with sin, especially with the priests. They were to be SO careful, not even eating meat that was theirs beyond the second day. Their purity was priceless. Yet we see as we continue to study the Old Testament that they allowed sin to creep in and whether in tiny ways or big ways (Nadab and Abihu, Hophni and Phineas, etc.) sin destroyed even those who were consecrated to God’s service. 

The Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons through the devil’s authority. Jesus pointed out that a house that fights against itself destroys itself from the inside. The ONLY way Jesus could have cast out these demons was by being AGAINST Satan. But Jesus quickly turns the tables and tells them that blasphemy against God will destroy them eternally. 

It’s easy to read about termites and have a healthy fear of them. Similarly, we should read about sin and have a healthy terror of its destructive capabilities. However, what we DON’T need to fear is evildoers. That may seem counterintuitive, but it makes sense for the very reason we should have a fear of sinning: God’s wrath. God will take care of evil. We don’t have to. If you look at the world around us, you will see evil nearly everywhere you look. But God says that those who work iniquity, “…shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” 

So what is the remedy to sin? How can we avoid having our lives destroyed by the termites of sin? That answer is also given to us in Psalm 37:3-5 “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”

The secret is to call the exterminator. God is the only one who can eradicate sin from our lives, and it is actually his desire to do so. In having a desire that we be like Christ, the only way for that to happen is for the un-Christlike things (sin) to be taken out of our lives. If our delight matches up with His delight, then the termites of sin will be forever on the run. Don’t be destroyed from within, contact the Exterminator today!