Bread Crumbs – Devotions for Life

… spiritual leakage …. 

.

Spiritual leakage sounds innocent enough.

In most cases a leak is a minor inconvenience:

A leaking tire needs a patch;

A leaking faucet needs a washer;

A leaking diaper needs a replacement.

But if left unattended any leak will create a mess or perhaps a disaster.

It’s the little things which cause the biggest problems.

The Preacher teaches:

“Through sloth the roof sinks in, and through indolence the house leaks.” Ecclesiastes 10:18 (1)

Inattentiveness can bring the house down.

This is why Oswald Chambers was concerned about spiritual leakage. (2)

It is the little things we neglect, which can destroy our faith or the blessings we have from God.

One of those things is called “little sins.”  While little sins never look like a potential problem, they grow like a mustard seed and spread like kudzu.  Overnight, while we are sleeping, they take root and consume us.

Is sin ever a little thing?

Charles Spurgeon reminds us how big a little sin can become:

Sin, a little thing? Is it not a poison? Who knows its deadliness? Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes spoil the grapes? Does not the tiny coral insect build a rock which wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes fell lofty oaks? (3)

A little sin is second cousin to the girl who is a little bit pregnant.  Her little pregnancy will eventually give birth.  When the baby is born Dad adores him and Mom nurses him.

By the time a little sin takes root, we are madly in love and cannot imagine parting with our child.

We palliate sin in an effort to make its presence less obvious.  We do the same thing with cancer.  Give it enough morphine to remove the pain, until it grows so big it kills us.

Oswald Chambers was correct to warn us about spiritual leakage.

Are you leaking?

+ + +

1. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001), Ecclesiastes 10:18–19.

2. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest : Selections for the Year (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1993).

3. Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening : Daily Readings, Complete and unabridged; New modern edition. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006).