Reading Plan:
Daniel 5


Our Thoughts:
I read a book once called Kill the Spider. The main idea was simple—there are things in our lives that exist that we want to get rid of, and we think if I could only stop doing this, or if I could get rid of that, my life would be better. However, the fruits of our undesirable actions are really only cobwebs. You can work every day to clean the cobwebs from your life, but if you never dig deeper to find the spider and kill it, the cobwebs will return every time.

We watch this play out in Daniel chapter 5. King Belshazzar was living life to the fullest until God provided a message to him in a way that left him terrified. This fear drove him to seek answers immediately, however, the answers weren't something he would enjoy hearing. Digging to the root of our sin will never be an enjoyable process, but if we want to live a fulfilled life where we aren’t fighting the same battles over and over, it’s a necessary process. Daniel reminded Belshazzar of the process his father went through to kill the spider of pride in his life, revealing to Belshazzar that the same spider was controlling his life as well. Unfortunately, Belshazzar never dealt with this issue like his father did and his sin led to his death. However, defeat does not have to be the ending of our story.

We have the option to choose the life we want, no matter how we were raised or the influences that surround us every day. We are our own responsibility, and the answer lies within that very word...Response + Ability! We have the ability to choose our response to life and no one can take that away from us! It’s our choice. Will we choose to respond to problems as our parents did? Will we choose to respond as a victim in life? Or will we choose to dig deeper and find the root of our ungodly actions? Today, my prayer is that we abandon the superficial act of cleaning the cobwebs to look better for others and that we will have the courage to actually kill the spiders in our lives. It’s our choice, and it’s our responsibility.


More Questions:
1. What are the cobwebs you have continually tried to clean from your life that keep coming back?
2. What choice do you need to make today to kill the spiders in your life?


Prayer:
Lord, help me to search deeper and find the root of the sin in my life. Reveal areas in my life where I continually fall into the same habits and patterns that are not healthy for me. Give me the courage to face these areas head-on. Show me the way to be an overcomer and to live life to the fullest as you have designed me to do.


Author: Angie Gates