Allergic Reaction

Have you ever gotten hives or an allergic reaction to medication, food, perfume, or soap products? If you haven't - count yourself fortunate indeed! (If you've ever experienced mosquito bites that itch until you think you'll scratch your skin off - you're with me on this one.)

These skin irritations - rashes, bites, and hives - can be the most aggravating conditions ever! You tell yourself to keep your hands off, but squirm with the temptation to relieve the itch - which, if you succumb, only makes it worse because then you itch and burn!

I'm in the midst of my own battle with these nasty reactions. I woke one morning with a mysterious rash and have no idea what I've eaten or what new substance I may have introduced to my body, but it doesn't like it! I can think of nothing new that I've eaten or used - so where is this aversion coming from? It's back to the basics for me, isolating everything I can think of that may have caused the allergy.

Some allergies are developed over time and as you are exposed to these substances they build up in your body until there is an excess that you can no longer tolerate. Allergies come in all forms - from natural airborne pollens to the foods we eat - the ordinary can become unsuspecting enemy agents to our bodies.

The most mild of these aversions go unnoticed - we may even have allergies we're unaware of - but build up enough antigens in your body and it is sure to react accordingly. It will tell you in no uncertain terms that it has a distinct aversion to what you are subjecting it to. That means cutting out new foods or soaps or perfumes - getting back to the basics, to what is 'pure' and what you know your body tolerates well. For some people, allergies are not just an inconvenient nuisance, but a true threat to their life.

As subtle and as sudden as this recent attack on me has been, it got me to thinking about how we might have an allergic reaction spiritually. You know - we ingest a little too much of the world, thinking it won't harm us, and boom! This little bit and that little bit add up and you find yourself with a feeling of antipathy or aversion to right attitudes or actions.

James 4:4 tells us that if we want to be a friend of the world we make ourselves an enemy of God. Spiritually speaking, the world is an antigen and the more we let it into our life, the more its philosophies, actions and attitudes build up in us - perhaps even without us realizing it - and eventually, there will be an outbreak in our life. It may be that we find ourselves indifferent to the things of God, or we no longer care about other people, it may even lead us to sin.

The NKJV of the Bible puts it this way -

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears. (2 Tim 4:3)

Do your ears itch?

All for Him,

Missy