How to trap a Fruit Fly

Confession: lately we have had an infestation of fruit flies in our kitchen.  I must say that there is little that I find more annoying than fruit flies!  The things multiply like crazy and claim any sort of sweet food that is not actively guarded within a matter of seconds.  And on top of it, they just make you feel gross, like you have a dirty house and contaminated food.  So needless to say, we have been making every effort to get our little fruit fly problem under control quickly.  I have been cleaning and sanitizing our kitchen like it is a hospital and quickly picking up food that is not being eaten (which is surprisingly often with a 3 year old). 

In addition, we have set out a number of fruit fly traps.  If you’ve never seen a fruit fly trap before, it is surprisingly easy to make.  Rather than actively pursuing and hunting down to fruit flies, the traps work by slowly luring them in.  We set out a few bottles with apple cider vinegar and a little piece of really ripe banana.  The flies are immediately attracted to the bottle, but it takes them a while to venture down inside.  They sit around the rim of the bottle for quite some time.  After about a day or so, they start to get a bit more comfortable and go down into the bottle.  As you can guess, they can’t get back out and wind up drowning themselves in the alluring death trap awaiting them.  I know this sounds a little harsh, but did I mention just how annoying these little bugs are?

Surprisingly, the Lord used these fruit fly traps to teach me a very important lesson about sin and death.  He showed me that just like these fruit flies, the most effective way that we are lured in and trapped by sin is slowly and subtly, and that ultimately we are being seduced to death.  Let me give you a few examples of what I mean.

The enemy doesn’t catch many of us with the allure of going and killing someone right off the bat.  We know better than that.  Rather, he uses the slow, seductive trap of bitterness, resentment, unresolved anger, unforgiveness.  These smell sweet to us.  We can justify them, and find ourselves being sucked in by a very convincing lie.  In our bitterness and resentment, we believe the lie that we are justified in our anger.  Someone has wronged us, and we believe that it is our right to be angry with that person who has not asked or sought out our forgiveness.  Yes, we know that the Bible says to forgive up to 70 x 7, but this is different…do you know what they did to me…they clearly don’t deserve that sort of forgiveness and surely Jesus would agree with us if he knew the specifics of our situation.  And so we sit on the rim of the trap, just stewing there for a while.  After sitting there long enough, we become comfortable.  I’m fine, I’m not in any danger here…maybe I’ll just take a little peek inside and go a little deeper.  And so we are lured in, the end ultimately being death. 

 

In the garden when Satan tempted Eve and the Adam to eat the forbidden fruit and disobey God, they did not experience physical death immediately.  But death was certain and did in fact come, for them and for all people.  In the same way, we may not experience the death from our sin immediately, but ultimately all sin does lead to death.  The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death.”  There is no sin that does not lead to death. 

Here are a few more “fruit fly” traps that I feel we can easily get sucked into and the lies that we believe, luring us in…

-Sexual impurity….”It’s just today’s culture to have sex before marriage and is not realistic to think that people will be virgins when they marry.  Don’t be so old fashioned.”

-Overindulgence (materialism and gluttony)…”I deserve it.  I don’t want to wait for later, I want it now.”

-Pride…”God didn’t give me this, I earned it, I did it.”

-Selfishness….”They owe me.  When they ___, then I’ll ___. ”

-Harshness, unkindness, irritability…”They made me act that way.  I had no choice, did you hear the way they treated me?”

 

These are just a few areas where the Lord showed me we are so easily lured in to death.  We sit on the rim, justifying our behavior even though we know that the Bible teaches us contrary.  We know what  the Bible teaches us about forgiveness, purity, self control, humility, selflessness, and lovingkindness, etc, but often times what we don’t realize is that the reason God commands us to abide in these is to lead us to life!  Jesus said, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

 

My prayer for you today is that the Lord will show you if you are sitting on the rim of a trap and lead you you life instead of death.  One more observation that I will share with you about my fruit fly traps is that the fruit flies are never sitting there alone.  They always have company sitting on the rim with them.  Don’t look around at the others in your life to see if you are “safe” from sin and death.  Rather, look up.  Look at the Lord, seek to see what His Word says knowing that it is there to lead you unto life, and ultimately to life found in Jesus Christ. 

May God bless you richly.