It struck me like a load of bricks as I was squatting there, bent over a project in my garage. I was prepping a piece of furniture to be refinished, trying to grab up and pry loose some pieces of decorative metalwork on the cabinet doors.

I was making slow progress, wondering if the pieces were superglued as well as nailed down (because they really weren’t budging). And as I tried to wiggle the flat head of my screwdriver under any part of one, this verse hit me right between the eyes:

Ephesians 4:27. Do not give the devil a foothold.

Because you know the moment he knows he’s got you? It’s not when he’s managed to get the piece all the way off (when you’ve gone on and followed the devil right down a path and made a mess of your life).

Nope, it’s right here. This is the battle. It’s the moment when he finally gets the head of the screwdriver wedged just barely under the edge of the nailed down piece. That’s when Satan claims victory. [Because I know if I can just get my screwdriver under it even a millimeter, that piece is good as gone.] And he knows all he needs is a foothold.

1 Peter 5:8 warns us to “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” And that’s good to remember. Keep your eyes open. Exercise self-control. There’s a beast looking to snack on your flesh and use your bones as a toothpick.

And I think–like many–I’m pretty good about avoiding a roaring lion. He announces the danger, and I head for safety. I get out of the pool when there’s lightning in the distance. I go to the basement in tornadoes, high ground in floods. I head out when the building’s on fire. I head in when a rabid dog’s on the loose.

But it’s the quiet little neat & tidy sin sneaking in that will get you. The temptation to try a drug or take a drink or have a look or steal a bit or tell one lie or cheat just once or eat too much or any number of temptations that might come across our paths in a lifetime or a day; those are the ones that ensnare us. No one swings wide her door to invite in a hungry lion {but many have been just as devoured in the end when they crack their doors to take a peek}.

Song of Solomon 2:15 hints at how when it speaks on love: “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.“

So here’s my action plan for the day:

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

“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is —His good, pleasing and perfect will.” Romans 12:2

So, anyone else out there want to join me in my plan for the day?