February 16, 2016 SHARE: Reading time: two minutes. I don’t know what kind of presence the devil has at your house, but I do know he would love to set up camp there. He would really enjoy an invitation to be a permanent resident, stirring up trouble in your home, in your family. Maybe the presence of Satan in your home is like that of the annoying mosquito in the summertime, that tiny little buzzing sound that is nothing dramatic, but just a steady, droning, agonizing buzz that disrupts what is an otherwise peaceful quiet. Maybe his presence is an earthquake that threatens to tumble every last brick from it’s place and topple your house. What I do know is that “one little word can fell him.” Should we send the devil on his way today?“Don’t give the devil a foothold” (Ephesians 4:27) reads literally, “Don’t give the devil a place” a topos. Our invitation to Satan’s demolition, or his annoying buzz that won’t go away, is our anger, maybe just a few words of payback spoken a little too quickly. It might be a long standing broken relationship. Those are the places where he camps out and does his damage in our families, in our marriages, even in our churches. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the promise that the one little word, “Jesus,” is our ever-present, ever-ready weapon in our warfare against Satan’s bothering, terrorizing work. “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” is the Lord’s call for emotional wellness in our homes. When storm clouds gather, when the earth rumbles and shakes beneath our most precious relationships, when the harmony that the Lord desires for us is ruined by that incessant little buzz of the sin that comes between us, we say, “Jesus.” The Lord’s victory in the wilderness is a great comfort to us who fail so often to resist the temptation to launch the words that bite and sting those we love. In humble contrition and repentance, we invite Jesus when we say to one another, “I was wrong. I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.” That’s when Jesus appears. When we flee to His merciful forgiveness, and then, when we learn in our weak and imperfect way to live in love and forgiveness with one another, not letting the sun go down without restoring the “shalom in the home,” Jesus appears. We say “Jesus” to one another and He quietly pinches the mosquito out of midair. The annoying buzz stops. Harmony is restored. “Thank you, Lord!” We say “Jesus” to one another and He braces the fault line that threatens to destroy us. Our house stops shaking. “Thank you, Lord!” Where has the devil taken a foothold? Is it time to speak to one another the one little word he hates? Thanks for reading. Are you interested in helping bring a Grace Place Wellness Retreat to your region? We’d love to hear from you. Contact our President/CEO Randy Fauser today to begin exploring the possibilities. Let’s have a conversation about bringing our Classic Retreat to your area soon!