While visiting in Haiti, Dale A. Hayes heard a Haitian minister illustrate to his congregation the need for total commitment to Christ.
The minister told of a man who wanted to sell his house for $2,000. Another man badly wanted the house but couldn’t afford the full price.
After much haggling, the owner agreed to sell the house for half the asking price with just one stipulation: he would retain ownership of one small nail protruding from just over the door.
After several years, the original owner wanted the house back, but the new owner was unwilling to sell. So, the first owner went out, found the carcass of a dead dog, and hung it from the single nail he still owned.
Soon the house became uninhabitable, and the family was forced to sell the house to the owner of the nail.
The Haitian minister’s conclusion: “If we leave the devil with even one small peg in our life, he will return to hang his rotting garbage on it, making it unfit for Christ’s habitation.”[1]
Question – How much have you given the devil?
Paul tells the Ephesians 4.27 to “give no opportunity to the devil.”
Have you given a place, no matter how small to the devil?
Even one small nail can make a difference.
Just a thought,
