You can go to almost any pet store that sells mice and see a mouse wheel in the mouse’s cage.  The mouse loves the wheel and runs and runs on it to get exercise since it is cooped up in a cage.  The mouse doesn’t realize it is running and really not going anywhere.

I recently have felt like a mouse on a mouse wheel – running and running and getting nowhere.  Let me explain.  The wheel is an analogy for the things we turn to to meet our needs and satisfy our longings.    Some examples might be alcohol, drugs, food, self-mutilation, infidelity, or even sleep.    So often these things we turn to quickly become forms of addiction.  When we believe that we can meet our needs apart from Christ, it is like running on a mouse wheel and getting nowhere.  What we need to realize is that these things we turn to are not the core issue but merely a symptom.   What happens is that we run to our own addictions and things that we think will satisfy us and a vicious cycle begins – we are running and running and getting nowhere.  We are exhausted and never satisfied.  We wake up the next day and do it all over again.  I have had a lifelong struggle with food but the real issue is much deeper that what I eat each day.  What I am realizing is that the enemy uses these things that we run to to separate us  from God.  He wants me to believe that I don’t need God and that I can live apart from Him and meet my needs just fine.  The truth is I can’t – I will never be satisfied apart from Jesus.  Why?  Because God made me!  Since He created me, He is the only One who knows how to meet my needs, satisfy my longings, and quench my thirst!  He created me for Himself and with needs and desires that only He can satisfy!  The enemy wants to distract me with various addictions and the pleasures of this world.  What I realized this week is that it is all a spirit of pride – a spirit that says I don’t need God and I can meet my needs on my own apart from Him!  It is that spirit that keeps me running on the mouse wheel.  God created me to be dependent on Him as my Father – in recognizing and confessing my dependence on Him, humility overcomes the spirit of pride.  My war cry today is “My Only Hope is Jesus.”  In my brokenness, He meets me at my point of need.