Daily lesson for October 27, 2014

Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 11 verses 24 through 26:

24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ 25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order. 26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first.”

Some years ago, I was asked to come and pray over the apartment of a man who had relapsed in recovery and was starting over. I used this passage from Luke Gospel where Jesus talks about a demon who was exorcised from a person, wandered around looking for another place to inhabit, but then ultimately returned to the person it originally possessed saying, "I will return to my house from which I came." Returning to find "his house" cleaned up, the demon then invited seven more demons over and as Jesus said, "And the last state of the person is worse than the first."

The moral of the story is that it's not enough to clean house. People clean house all the time. They carry out the bottles, dispose if any evidence, and sweep a whole lot under the rug. But then they leave the door ajar. It may be awhile, but before too long the demon comes back in and makes himself at home. Pretty soon things are worse than they were before.

Here's a hard truth: we can sweep up and pray over a friend or loved one's house all day; but if the door is ajar it's pretty guaranteed that the demon will be back. And the only one who can decide to shut the door is the owner of the house -- nobody else can do it for them.