Are There Termites In Your Heart?
Are There Termites In Your Heart?
Termites are underground insects that feed on wood, frequently damaging homes and other buildings. Termites cause billions of dollars in structural damage, and every year home and building owners spend over two billion dollars on preventing and treating termite damage. There are over 2,500 different species of termites. Termites need to live in dark, damp environments where they're not exposed to air. There are approximately 41 species of termites in the United States. What do termites have to do with our hearts? Unrealized sin in our hearts works just like termites. It eats at our being and the core of our humanity. Like termites, sin eats at the core of our being and causes all kinds of damage to our lives, our relationships with each other and the church. Sometimes it works to damage our personhood to the degree that we become destructive and unlikable people. Why do we get these sin termites in our hearts? Like termites, sin must have an environment in which to grow. Jesus said in Mark 7:20-23, And he said, "What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." Our hearts provide the perfect environment for sin to grow and eventually manifest itself in the damage or destruction of a person’s life, his or her relationships, the church, their testimony and a host of other environments affected by that person’s sin. All people are born in sin and shaped in iniquity. Because we are in contact with a sinful world our hearts get fashioned by the world and become good environments for sin to grow. Sin in our hearts works in a very similar fashion as termites. It’s often the sin embedded deep in our hearts of which we don’t realize that causes the most damage to our relationships with Christ and people. Often it is the sins embedded in our hearts and unrealized, that causes Christians to have so little faith and so little a commitment to the things of God. Many times it is the sins embedded in the hearts of saints that causes us to be satisfied with our own spiritual life but have no concern for building the kingdom or seeing others come to Christ. What’s interesting about the sins embedded in our hearts is that like termites, we sometimes see signs that the sins are there. One way you know that you may have a termite infestation is that you see small tubes in the wood. For the sins in our hearts we see signs but since we are not familiar with the deceitfulness of sin we don’t recognize the signs. To keep termites out of your home your house must be treated regularly and inspected often. To keep sin from infecting our relationship with Jesus and others we need a daily inspection of our hearts. The psalmist David prayed this prayer in Ps 139:23-24. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! Since the range of sins in our hearts is so vast and the deceitfulness of sin is so powerful, we must stay ever so much in God’s word so that the light of His word will expose our sins. We must go before the Lord in sincerity of heart and ask Him to show us our sins so that we can deal with the infestation. This writer is amazed at how much we sin and live sinfully without ever recognizing the sins in our own hearts. One sin that breaks my heart greatly is our sin of unbelief. We confess and sing about how great our God is, yet when it comes to trusting Him, we simply will not. In this writer’s opinion, one of our greatest sins is that we don’t believe in our God enough to trust Him. We don’t believe in Him enough to pray and trust Him for the salvation of people. We don’t believe and trust Him enough to try things outside of our abilities. We don’t believe and trust His word enough to hold fast to it as a matter of conviction. Our disbelief is a termite in our hearts. Our disbelief is also a sign of our own pride whereby we trust in our selves and our thinking more than we do our God.
They say that there are over 2,500 different species of termites and approximately 41 species of termites in the United States. How many different sins are in your heart of which you have yet to treat with the forgiveness found in the gospel and the daily treatment of God’s word being embedded in your heart to produce and environment where sin cannot spread. Are there any termites, sin in your heart that you’ve failed to address. Please do so quickly to eliminate further damage.
Rev. Lawrence Robinson
