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Matthew 12:43-45
In Matthew 12:43-45, Jesus speaks of an unclean spirit that has been removed from a person’s life, and of how this unclean spirit searches rest but finds none. Jesus says that the unclean spirit will eventually return to the person in which it was removed in its search for rest. If the soul of the person in which it left has not been filled/protected by God’s Holy Spirit, the unclean spirit will take with it, as Jesus states in Matthew 12:45 (NKJV), “seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the state of that man is worse than the first.” Jesus tells the Pharisees, “So shall it also be with this wicked generation” (Matthew 12:45d).
This is an example that if a person cleans up their life without filling the void with God’s Holy Spirit, the evils that were once removed will return in a worse state than the first.
We hear of self-help guides, diets, and a world full of ways to make ourselves better, but if we make the effort on our own, without the help of our Savior Jesus [who has promised to send His Holy Spirit to live within us to be our guide (John 14:15-18, 26)] then we are only creating ways to put ourselves in a worse state than we started. Only Jesus is more powerful than Satan. That is why He came, to save the world from sin, which is from Satan. We should strive to clean up our lives, but the only way to properly do so is to fill the left void with Jesus – with God’s Holy Spirit – to be our protector and guide for life, in this world and in the next.
Dear LORD,
The desire to be a better person is in us all, but please help us to understand and realize that in cleaning up our lives, we are creating a space – a void that cannot remain empty – it will be filled with something, be it good or evil. Please help us to see that the void in our lives needs Your Holy Spirit to make us complete in Your will for our lives, so that the evils of this world in Satan cannot return to us and make us worse off than before. In Jesus name I pray, amen.