I've Been Robbed

It’s really my fault. My bag got stolen out of my car this week. I had run into a store for just a second and did not even realize my travel backpack was gone until I got to my destination that evening. I was robbed. Outside of a few significant papers there wasn’t anything of great value in it. The bag itself was probably worth as much as the contents. It happened Saturday and it clouded my mind. I kept trying to recreate all the contents in my mind, kept kicking myself for letting it be where it could be taken (mom always said to put stuff in the trunk), kept wondering if the thief would misuse the info on the papers to attempt to steal my identity. I didn’t sleep much that night, tossed and turned, even went back out to my car in hotel parking lot around 3am just looking. I don’t know what I was thinking: maybe I’d missed a huge backpack in my little car, or maybe the thief had chased me down and returned the backpack - your mind does odd things on little sleep. 

And then around 5 a sermon hit me (naturally). While Jesus does not identify satan as “the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10). Certainly the larger context of the Scriptures portray the devil as a deceiver and adversary who seeks to rob people of God's blessings and lead them away from Truth. I now get the concept better. What was stolen was more than a bad, it was confidence, trust in others, a degree of security, some peace of mind. And while in a physical sense those things are perplexing, on a spiritual plane they are caustic. Don’t let the evil one have a foothold. Fellow preacher don’t leave your heart or soul exposed and thereby allow your joy, your peace, your faith, or your security to be taken. 

 Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it."