The Sweeter Song

What I read this morning in a devotional reading from “Beside the Still Waters”

The Sweeter Song 

 by Jason Miller of Evart, Michigan

That ye might be filled with the fullness of God – Ephesians 3:19

Greek legend tells of a treacherous place in the sea where no captain had ever passed without experiencing shipwreck. Mermaids inhabited the rocks, and as each ship approached, they began playing an enticing, fatal strain of music. No sailor could resist the song, and they ended up crashing on the rocks. Captain Ulysses determined that his ship would not suffer such a fate. “Tie me to the mast,” he ordered his crew, “and stuff your ears with wax.” As they neared the rocks, the irresistible notes began tickling the captain’s ears. He strained futilely to escape as his desire to follow the music boiled. The ship sailed safely by.

Captain Orpheus had a better plan. As his ship neared the temptation which he knew he and his men could not withstand, he took a harp in his hands. He had been practicing for this very moment. As his fingers plied the strings, music such as his crew had never heard before poured forth. They stood with their eyes fixed on their captain, enraptured by the ethereal strain. Not one of them even heard the mermaid’s song, and they too passed safely by.

How often do we “tie ourselves to the mast” and strive vainly to suppress our fleshly lusts and desires? We may refrain from committing the act of sin, but sinful desires have not been conquered.

In order to gain victory over our flesh and the world, we need to hear the sweeter song that Christ has and become enveloped with Him.

Until we believe that what Christ has to give us is incomparable to the world’s false offers, we will fail to live in victory. God tenderly yearns to grant us gifts that are beyond our deepest expectations. Will you surrender to His sweeter song?

The world offers pleasure but gives destruction.

Christ offers the cross but gives eternal life.