The spiders are terrible this year, it seems like everytime I turn around outside or inside there is one there. Well today it turned out that the kids got a show put on for them. They got to watch a jumping spider pounce on a stink bug that was on the outside of the window. It never saw it coming, it was a sudden aggresive attack. Well...Satan works this same way often in our lives. Sometimes it's not a lie we believe, but a bold faced sudden attack where we least expect it. Are we on guard? Are we ready and able to withstand him always?
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
The spiders are terrible this year, it seems like everytime I turn around outside or inside there is one there. Well today it turned out that the kids got a show put on for them. They got to watch a jumping spider pounce on a stink bug that was on the outside of the window. It never saw it coming, it was a sudden aggresive attack. Well...Satan works this same way often in our lives. Sometimes it's not a lie we believe, but a bold faced sudden attack where we least expect it. Are we on guard? Are we ready and able to withstand him always?
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way.
Today is a day that we have been looking forward to for quite some time. Leaving Texas and coming to Danville was one of the best things that the Lord has ever done for us, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t miss so many of the people that we love down there. It’s been almost three years since we’ve seen Cierra Armstrong, a decade long friend of Kylie & mine that we went to college with and worshipped with in Florida. She is one of my wife’s dearest friends, and her whole family is so special to us – including her husband Matt. While he was not able to make this trip, Cierra and their son Luke flew into Louisville today to come pay us a visit and spend some time together. Naturally she needed picked up, so I was back on kid duty today while Kylie went up to go get her and bring them back to the house. The kids don’t particularly love it when Mom is gone as they spent most of the time asking where she is and when she’ll be back (I think they got tired of Dad after our last week long stent) – but we had a fun day together nonetheless. After breakfast we got dressed and put our shoes on to go outside while we had some good weather to let the kids get their energy out and enjoy their new play structure. Every time we go outside, I have been doing a little check through their playsets because for whatever reason the spiders are just terrible this year. I killed a massive wolf spider about a week ago, and luckily that’s the only one of those I’ve seen. Usually it’s just been little hairy jumping spiders. They aren’t dangerous to people, but knowing my son he would try to eat it and I’m not sure that would be the best choice of protein. Sure enough we went outside and there were several crawling & around that I removed before the kids started swinging and playing together. I thought that would be the last of our spider excitement for the day, but boy was I wrong. We came inside, did lunch, and got the kids down for naps. After they woke up, I went in to pull back the shades when a pretty cool sight was right there at eye level for both of the kids. I fairly large jumping spider was right there on the window, and about a foot or two away was a stink bug. Suddenly, without any warning, the spider pounced and was right there on top of the beetle. I pulled out my phone and started recording the kid’s reaction to watching the spider overpower the bug. It was a great teaching moment for the kids, and hopefully this won’t ruin Ava’s ongoing love for the itsy bitsy spider after seeing on in action. I was curious about these little fuzzy spiders as the day went on so I decided to look them up and learn more about them. As it turns out, jumping spiders have a lot of unique features, including their coloration, their eyes, etc. But one of the most unique things is that they do not spin webs like most spiders do in order to catch their prey. The most they will do is let out a line in order to climb down from a ledge, but other than that – that is not how they hunt. Rather than using a deceptive trap as others do with web, they use the element of surprise as we had just witnessed. They can jump distances more than 10 to 40 times their body length! While that is not particularly a long distance in terms of feet, in comparison to the spider it’s astounding. Imagine if you were able to suddenly jump 40 times your body length in a split second – I can imagine some football players would love to do that. But that’s how they can survive without ever spinning a web – the element of surprise is on their side, and if their prey is not on guard in that very moment, they are likely going to wind up as dinner.
I’m not here today to educate you about spiders, but watching what we watched today reminded me of how guarded I must be in my life against the attacks and schemes of the one who is hunting my soul: Satan. Let us consider Ephesians 6:10-13, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” There is much that the Scriptures have to say about Satan, the great enemy, and his desire to destroy & devour us in our lives. Peter likens him to a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour in 1 Peter 5:8. This we know and understand – and we recognize why we must be on guard. However, I think many times we underestimate just how dangerous Satan is – and much of that has to do with not being caught off guard by his attacks. Let’s consider how Satan works for a moment. For starters, he is a great deceiver and liar – in fact he is called the father of lies. Sometimes the way that he attacks us is by trying to sell us a lie and replace the truth it with. It’s not something that is a sudden attack, but it presents itself gradually and if we are not careful we just walk right into his web and soon find ourselves tangled up because we believed his deception. But this is not the only way that Satan will try to attack us in our lives. Sometimes it’s not so deceptive, so slow, or so methodic. Sometimes the way that Satan will come after us is like the jumping spider – we turn and from out of nowhere there his is in our face, tempting us & attacking us where we least expected it. It’s the man who is browsing a website to buy something for his wife, when suddenly a targeted ad pops up on his screen to tempt him to be redirected to view something pornographic. It’s the single mother who is called into her bosses office, and before she can process what is happening is instructed that she must lie for the company or else lose her job she worked so hard to get, and he needs an answer now. It’s the high school student whose best friend asks him to come to his locker, who then pulls out a small tinfoil wrapping that contains illicit drugs and asks him to hold on to them for him. It’s the hard working father whose family has been poverty ridden despite his best efforts, who watches a wallet full of cash drop from a strangers pocket as he gets out of the bus. You see, as Paul reminds the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 2:11, we cannot be ignorant of Satan’s schemes. Sometimes the way Satan tries to get us is through a sudden attack out of nowhere, where he has the element of surprise on his side and you are forced to make an immediate decision. You never saw him coming. What are you going to do? How are we going to be able to stand such a sudden, immediate temptation & attack? Paul gives us the answer: that we must always be on our guard and equipped to fight. Make no mistake, we are in a real spiritual war in this very moment as we speak. There is no “break” or “safe zone” where Satan cannot attack you. We must put on the full armor of God, arming ourselves with faith, truth, righteousness, hope, peace & prayer. And we must always be ready, because you never know when you will turn and be standing face to face with the enemy. Don’t let your guard down, and don’t give Satan an opportunity to pounce, stand firm in your faith and prepare yourself before these moments even happen that you may be able to resist him.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.