(Pastor James Scarborough, Donalsonville Assembly of God)

The other day Gale brought a couple of our little church girls home with her from daycare while their mother was taking care of some other things. Gale gave both of the girls a snack to hold them over until they went home for supper. Anna Beth, who is four, ate her bowl of chips while her one-year-old sister, Madelene, attacked her bowl of Cheerios like three preachers going after a plate with just two pieces of fried chicken on it!

As she sat on my lap and crunched away, getting both of us nice and sticky from the honey in the cereal, she finally got to the last two Cheerios. The bowl was made of seethrough plastic, and one piece of cereal was in my hand with the bowl sitting on top of it. She could see it fine, but when she went after it she was separated from it by the bowl. (I wonder what a oneyear old is thinking when she knows full well something is there, but she cannot get her fingers on it?)

I had a little chuckle and finally got the bowl out of the way, so she could devour what remained of her snack.

The same sort of thing can happen to us in our spiritual journey through life. We see clearly in God's Word that He has promised to provide for us, equip us and use us, yet there are times when we feel like we are reaching for what He has to offer but not able to fully grasp it. In such times, we should look into our hearts to see if we have allowed something to get between us and God that is preventing us from benefiting from all that He has in store for us. It is true that there are times when our faith is being put to the test, resulting in us experiencing some time that seems spiritually dry and without clear direction. But it is also possible that during such times that there is something in the way that we need to allow God to remove, such as pride, greed, jealousy, unforgiveness or anything from an endless list of things. Certainly it is imperative that each of us allow God to search our hearts and cleanse us from those things that are hindering our walk of faith.

Christ used some powerful words in Mark 9:43 to illustrate how drastically we should deal with anything that gets between us and God and causes us to sin: "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out" (NIV). In the following verses, He continued to stress the importance of His point by stating similar things about the feet and eyes.

I do not believe the Lord had in mind the literal excision of body parts as a remedy for one's propensity to commit sin, for one can have a sinful attitude of heart even without the physical ability to commit the act. But it is a firm reminder of how seriously we must respond to removing whatever hinders us from being all that God wants us to be and achieving all that He wants us to achieve in our service for Him. May we all put into practice what He said.