The Wart War

Over the course of my life, I have had different skin-related issues.  By God's grace I have successfully battled athlete's foot, dandruff, dry patches of skin, and an occasional wart.  Warts can be particularly annoying because they are so durable!  Caused by a virus, warts have the amazing ability to regenerate even after being burned, cut off, or persistently treated.  I have had about five warts over the course of my lifetime, and they have never been cured without an all-out fight.  This is certainly not a glamorous post, but I trust it will do some good.

At the moment I am well on my way to ridding myself of a wart on the pad of one of my toes.  Since it wasn't giving me any pain, I ignored it for some time.  It was never that large, but it amazes me how fast skins grew around it for protection.  After many months, I decided the wart was part of my body I no longer wanted and committed myself to dealing with it.  So every other day I cut a small pad coated with an acid designed to break down the wart.  Then I carefully cut away any dead skin and apply another fitted pad.  The wart had feeling, a blood supply, and seemed to constantly regenerate.  It was like a parasite, a sensitive, painful area that draws strength from the body.  It is a two steps forward, one step back fight - a fight I was devoted to winning.  The reason why I still have the wart after a couple of years is because there were times that I thought the fight was over and stopped monitoring my toe.  Hello!  A month later the wart would be back, like it had never left.

It's a weird thing, to be fighting against your own body.  But this fight with the wart is just like our fight with sin.  Sin is a part of us because of our fallen nature.  If we are in Christ, God opens our eyes to parts of ourselves that should not be.  We must decide to deal with our sin and then diligently fight the battle.  It is true that those who repented and placed their faith in Jesus Christ have been forgiven from sin.  However, sin can grow in the life of a believer like a wart.  Unchecked and ignored, it can grow large and spread.  But sin is much more than unsightly:  it is deadly and destructive.

Just like there are steps I must take to rid myself of a wart, so we must take steps to eliminate sin from our lives.  We must recognize the sin that we have cultivated and allowed to remain.  We should not try to hide it from sight or deny its existence:  sin must be brought out in the open.  One man deals with the wart on his foot by going to a doctor for treatment; another man constantly wears socks, ashamed to show his toes.  When it comes to sin, hiding it only increases the power Satan has over our lives.  Unforgiveness is a foothold which can turn into a stronghold.  It cannot be seen with the naked eye, but is evident when seen through the lens of scripture.  2 Corinthians 2:10-11 reads, "Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, ¹¹ lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices."

If you are aware of an area of sin in your life, do not rest until you confess it to God and those you have wronged (James 5:16), repent, and forsake it.  The weaknesses in your flesh you will have for the rest of your days.  But weakness does not mean defeat if we are in Christ.  We must be vigilant and aware that we can fall back into old sins, ways of coping, addictions, and unscriptural thought patterns which will lead to our destruction.  We should not shrug off sin because we are confident in our salvation.  If Jesus died for my sins, I have no right to persist in them.  Let us fight the good fight without losing heart or hope.  Our God is able to keep us from stumbling.  When we do trip and fall, we have a God who is able to lift us up to our feet and lift our head so we might gaze into His eyes of everlasting love and take heart.

Declare war on those warts, and don't give up!  God has given us the victory, healing, and cleansing through Jesus Christ our LORD!