THE CHILDREN’S STORY CORNER:

FIERY DARTS

Do you know what fiery darts are? The Bible tells us that Satan has a whole bagful of them and uses them on both adults and children, often with great success.

One of these dart is called bitterness. It may start as anger because you did not get something you wanted. If you let that anger stay in your mind and keep going over and over it you start to feel sorry for yourself and before you know it, you become bitter about it!

Another dart is evil thinking about someone. You may think that another person has been talking about you and you start watching them and deciding in your own mind what they are saying and why. Before long it it goes from thinking bad thoughts about someone to speaking bad words about them, trying to show they are not as good as you are. Then this opens the door to a whole lot of other fiery darts. You may become jealous and hold a grudge against them or perhaps you start to make excuses about it to yourself. These bad thoughts act as a gate to block good thoughts out of our heart and mind. The Bible tells us that whatever is in our heart will, sooner or later, come out of our mouth! Have you ever said something quickly and then been surprised at what came out?

But the Bible provides us with something to keep these darts from harming us! It’s called the shield of faith! God’s Word can guard our hearts and thoughts so that we don’t let a bad thought stick around and take root. Perhaps you didn’t get something you wanted and maybe someone else did. God tells us in the Bible that He will provide everything we need and when we are content with what God provides for us He gives us a peace in our heart. That will keep Satan’s dart from doing us harm. When you use God’s Word you can stop this fiery dart in it’s tracks, just like Jesus did when Satan tried to attack Him. He told Satan, “It is written!” and then He would repeat God’s Word of Truth to keep Satan’s darts from harming Him. When we use God’s Word it is like holding up a shield of faith to protect us from evil thoughts that Satan tries to plant in our mind to hurt us.

So let’s not let those fiery darts find a place in our heart or mind and do what Jesus did ~ hide God’s Word in our hearts, and ask Jesus to help us ~ He will!

Your Aunt Vivien