Do not forsake her [wisdom], and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. (Proverbs 4:6)

In Ephesians 6:10-11 we are told to be strong in the Lord, to put on the armor of God so that we can stand against the schemes of the devil.  In verse 12 we are told why it is so critical that we stand in the strength of the Lord.  We are warned that our enemy is not flesh and blood rather it is rulers, authorities, cosmic powers of darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

At the Passover Meal, on the night before He was crucified (John 13), Jesus was washing the feet of His disciples. You remember the story – Peter asked Jesus to not only wash his feet but his hands and head also. Jesus responded: “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet”. Why do you think Jesus said such a thing?

When I was a little girl, I loved going barefoot.  Of course, by the end of the day, my feet would be dirty from playing outside. It was the routine in our house, every night, before we could climb into bed , we had to wash our feet; not a whole bath, just our feet.  And so it was in the days of Jesus.  The people wore sandals and there was no pavement on the streets; no doubt their feet got dirty.

However, in His response to Peter, Jesus isn’t talking about our physical feet, He is giving an analogy to make a point about about our spiritual “feet”.  As we walk around in this sinful world, no matter how careful we may be, we are exposed to many things, we’re going to get dirty feet; it’s unavoidable.

Over the next several days we’re going to look at five areas where we need to constantly guard ourselves to make sure, that at the end of the day, only our feet need to be washed.