Like A Charging Bear – August 25, 2019

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
Colossians 3:5

Like A Charging Bear

Greg Brush is a veteran fishing guide who lives in Alaska. Last summer he heard a twig snap behind him. He turned around just in time to see a massive brown bear charging straight at him.

“When I spotted him, he was within 15 yards,” Brush later said. “He was coming like a freight train.”

Brush had but one option. He raised his gun and started firing. The bear kept coming. Brush stumbled and fell on his back. Then his gun jammed. The last shot, however, had finally stopped the bear. It was just five feet away.

In your life, there is at least one temptation that regularly comes at you like a charging bear. Give yourself a few moments of candor and no doubt you’ll identify what it is. God’s Word tells us when that temptation comes, you and I have but one option. We need to raise the gun and pull the trigger. We need to put that temptation to death.

Too often, of course, you and I do the opposite. We think that we can befriend the temptation. We think we can domesticate it. We tell ourselves we can keep it under control. But the bear keeps charging. And in our heart of hearts, we know what that bear wants to do.

Confront the bear. Pull the trigger by coming to repentance and being washed in the blood of your Savior. Be renewed by his forgiveness. And be ready to confront another charging bear tomorrow.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, when temptation charges at me, empower me by your Spirit to put that temptation to death. For this, I look to you alone. Amen.