He who overcomes shall be clothed in white garments, and I will not blot out his name from the Book of Life; but I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.
Ticks are nasty little creatures. I don’t like them. I don’t know anyone who really does. They can transmit disease, which is a big reason to avoid them. Ticks are not insects, but more closely related to spiders. There are about 850 species of ticks world-wide, with only about 100 to 200 (just a guestimate) in the United States of America. That’s still a lot. They don’t fly or really jump, but they do “fall” onto unsuspecting hosts, either animals or people. They are so small and light that you might never know there is one on you. Once on a host, they find a good spot, such as in the hair or armpit then bury their heads and begin feasting. Slowly sucking blood for their meal. In doing this, they sometimes can transmit diseases that could be debilitating or deadly.
In thinking about these little pests, I began to see a correlation. Think about it. It’s a little like sin. Sin can find an unsuspecting host. Sin can actually find any host it wants, known or unknown. It lurks just a little away from us, just off our shoulders. Waiting for an opportunity. Once it creeps into our lives, it slowly starts to set up housekeeping, almost like the tick setting up its picnic area. Sin then slowly, much of the time without us even knowing, creeps farther and farther into our lives. All the while, we don’t even realize it’s there. Just like a tick hiding out. Sin drains us just as a tick feeds on our blood. Sin grows the more it feeds. It can overtake us, make us physically and mentally ill, and leads to death.
Just like there are precautions we can take to avoid ticks, remove ticks that are on us, we can take precautions to avoid sin. We can remove sin from our lives. We can’t do this alone. We are powerless to do it on our own. We need to pray to our Heavenly Father for strength, guidance, and the Holy Spirit to fill us, to carefully remove sin from our lives and shield us from it’s return. When we pray, and we should do this daily, God hears us. He will send His strength, His power, to remove the sin. If we repent of sin and ask for Him to shield us, He will change our hearts. He will wash us white as snow. He will cleanse us.
When we pray daily, and follow what He says, Jesus will intercede on our behalf, and we will live with Him in eternity.