Let's Keep The "Ice" Off Our Bow!

John was a professional salt-water fisherman. He explained to his good friend Jack, how he cruised out to sea each morning, coming back each evening with his catch. Jack asked, “Is there a part of the year you can’t go out?” John replied, “The winter is too risky. Below freezing, the spray of the water starts forming ice on the bow. The added weight makes the boat lie lower in the water. Inexperienced fishermen have allowed so much ice to build up on the bow that in heavy seas, the bow starts to dip beneath the waves. One dip too deep, and the boat goes down. The only thing to do is to grab an ax and start knocking the ice off once in a while. If you forget and let the ice build up, you’re dead.”

Think of the ice on the bow as representing sinful pride. Little by little, it builds up until you can’t stay spiritually afloat a moment longer. Look at the Pharisees. They were not intentionally arrogant, but Jesus called them “blind” because they were unaware they had this problem (Matthew 23:13-31). Little by little, their self-congratulatory attitude had expanded their egos, until they were spiritually shipwrecked (Matthew 23:1-7,31-33). As believers, we face a similar challenge today. What can we do to knock off any pride that will weigh us down? The following are three spiritual principles from Scripture for our consideration:

• We must regard others as better than ourselves, realizing that we all sin and stand in need of forgiveness (Philippians 2:3; cf. Romans 3:22-23; Matthew 18:21-35).
• We must be willing not only to have an attitude of humility, but be willing to associate with those “of low estate” as well (Romans 12:16; cf. Matthew 20:20-28; Matthew 23:10-12). We learn to acquire an attitude of humility by our willingness to perform humble tasks (John 13:1-17), demonstrating our sincere love and concern for others (Luke 10:25-37).
• We must continually recognize our debt to the Savior, for without Him, we would be hopelessly lost (Romans 5:6-9).

Beloved, little by little, day by day, let’s keep the “ice” off our bow! Disaster awaits anyone who ignores this warning (Matthew 23:33).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets