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The Barnacles of Life

by Steve Countryman  
10/14/2016 / Christian Living

Barnacles: 1. any of various marine crustaceans that, as adults, live attached to rocks and ship bottoms. 2. a thing or person that is difficult to get rid of.

The boat represents your life as you float along on life's many seas. Some seas are known for their rough stormy waters while others are typically smooth sailing. It's as you navigate these waters that you will run into different opportunities. Opportunities to bless and be a blessing to others, to share the Word with perfect strangers, to allow others to bless you, to mature in the Spirit, to "shine" as you go through trials and tribulations. Sometimes your boat gets in distress and you need God to rescue you! Other times your boat is the rescue boat sent by God to rescue someone else!

You will acquire barnacles on your boat. The barnacles represent sin and just like sin they like to stick to you. They start collecting as life throws problems at you everyday. I would consider them more like a parasite or unwanted guests. They feed off of the debris that floats by wherever you go and the junk that you try to throw overboard.

Attaching themselves to your boat, your life, your routines, your thoughts and your actions. Once they have fully grown they become securely attached. They are now with you everywhere you go. They become very difficult to remove! You can't shake them loose. You can't ignore them and hope they go away. And you can't wait for them to fall off. Others can't remove them for you!

Some barnacles can start out small like a comment someone made on your social media page that you didn't like. Or when you were out with your friends and someone said something mean. You confront them and they say that they "were just kidding". Too often when someone says they were just kidding sometimes they really were not.

But how you receive it, respond to it, talk about it and act on it is how it will "STICK TO YOU". If you accept it as offensive then it moves from a disliked thing to an irritant to a grudge then to a full blown hatred. Talking about it and bringing it up keeps stirring the embers of pain and ill-feelings. Those responses just keeps feeding the barnacles stuck to you. Reliving the event over and over in your mind will help anchor those barnacles to you!

Other barnacles can be caused by addictions that you keep struggling with. Even the fear of falling back into addiction can cause the barnacles to grow. You can get sin barnacles from those old friends of yours that you hang out with. Those friends that call you up and tell you that they are gong to stop by and pick you up for a night out. Because you choose to continue to hang out with them some of their barnacles of sin rub off on you. Instead of trying to get better you end up with even more barnacles of sin than before.
Barnacles of sin can attach themselves to your rudder making it hard to steer and stay on course. Other barnacles of sin will attach to your prop and motor so that you loose power of movement making it difficult to move in the Holy Spirit.

The barnacles of sin are meant to stay stuck to you. They are difficult to pry off, scrape off, chisel off or break off. Some people try to cover them up by making excuses for them. While some will blame others for their barnacles of sin. Then there are those who think that they can justify them in their lives to the point of bragging about them. Trying to live with them as part of your life, "I guess that's how God made me", only robs you of your victory. All of these examples are the result of believing the lies of the Devil. If he can keep those barnacles stuck to you then he knows that you will continue to be a useless Christian!

Matthew 7:4-5 4How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Ignoring your "plank" or barnacle of sin will hinder your ability to help and bless others!

But God is able! God is willing and desires to rid you of your barnacles of sin. You first must trust and have faith in Him. Take it to God in prayer. Ask the Holy Spirit to guide and direct your paths. Ask Him for good Christian friends for you to hang out with. For you to do ALL the necessary righteous things that allows the Holy Spirit to move on your behalf. He will give you the victory over sin and help you make the right and righteous decisions everyday!

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