The Nail

While Rob and I were driving to Port Canaveral last week, we were listening to Christian radio.  A devotional came through the speakers of my car that hit me in a profound way.  I cannot take credit for the parable of the nail, and I have no idea who was doing the story-telling.  But it is definitely worthy of sharing.

In a small foreign country, a man had his house for sale.  He was asking $2,000.00 for it.  Another man and his family desperately wanted to buy the house, but they only had $1, 000.00.  The owner of the house agreed to sell the house for $1, 000.00, but only under one condition.  He would retain ownership of the nail hanging outside the front door.  The new homeowner was more than willing to oblige, and so they moved into their new home.

Several months later, the previous owner wanted to buy the house back, but the family was not willing to sell it.  So, he began to hang dead, rotten animals on the nail outside of the front door.  As the days went on, the nail held something more and more gruesome, until the family finally decided to sell the house.

The moral of the story?  If you say you belong to Jesus, and you’ve given your life to Him, you can’t allow Satan to own the nail outside your front door.  He will use it to hang his junk on, to discourage you, and to push his way into your life.  He will use it to control you!  He is powerful.

I took this very personal.  The last 18 months of my life have held many hurtful trials.  Though I have turned them over to Jesus, Satan has tried to hang my hurts and disappointments outside my front door.  Each day that I allowed him to do that, they became more and more controlling of my life.  I thought about this long and hard.  What could I do to remove that nail so Satan had NO ownership in my life?

I got on my knees and begged the Lord to please get out that heavenly hammer and get rid of that nail.  I no longer want my hurts, my disappointments and my failures to overshadow what God has in store for me and my family.

Do you have a nail outside your front door?  If so, what is Satan trying to hang there?  I encourage you to do some soul searching and pray and ask God to help you remove that nail, so you may be fully willing and ready to be obedient to what He has in store for you.