Lying in bed this morning, I noticed the rosary by my bed was getting close to falling off of the lamp I had hung it from years ago. As I looked at it, I noticed that when I had hung it there I oriented it not toward my side of the bed, but out away from me. Hung not for my benefit but hung to ward off something, much like the cross I had hung outside of my loft several years ago. I hung that cross to ward off something that was sent to torment me, something that was never really there unless it was night, and the lighting was low. Since we hung the cross, it has left me alone, until last night, just for a moment, but it was more defined than it ever was previously. For a split second, I could feel the fear begin to well up, but it vanished when I remembered who I was and whose I was. This morning, lying there looking at my rosary I was reminded of the story of the seven sons of Sceva came to mind:
Acts 19:13-16 13 A group of Jews was traveling from town to town casting out evil spirits. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus in their incantation, saying, “I command you in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, to come out!” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this. 15 But one time when they tried it, the evil spirit replied, “I know Jesus, and I know Paul, but who are you?” 16 Then the man with the evil spirit leaped on them, overpowered them, and attacked them with such violence that they fled from the house, naked and battered. It occurred to me that they did not fail because they did not answer the demon correctly, they failed because they (not being Christians), did not know who they were in Christ and what Christ said his followers would be able to do once he went to be with the Father. John 14:12: 12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father.
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