It started a couple of days ago and didn’t let up.  A phone call informing me that I had been selected for a “free medical alert system.”  All I had to do was….  Well, I didn’t get that far, because I politely refused and hung up.  Then, another call and another polite refusal.  On about the fourth call within the same hour, the refusal wasn’t as polite (don’t judge, you’ve been there).  The next couple of calls, I simply either didn’t answer or hung up immediately.  On the next two or three, I spoke Spanish, and this time they hung up on me.  But they persisted.  When I’d block the number, they simply hacked another number and called again.  And again.  And again.  Over 15 calls in a three- or four- hour span.  From North Carolina, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and New Jersey.  Then yesterday, it started again.  Again, I ignored.  But they had my number.  And then I thought – isn’t that how temptation and sin are?  Persistent.  Call after call.  You block one number, and it simply gets on another line.  Sin makes things sound so rewarding, so fun, so free-from-cost.  It’s always there offering its “sincentives,” hoping you won’t read the fine print.  Persistent.  That’s what sin is.  And that’s why we have to be just as persistent in not answering its call.  We must be persistent in the Word, persistent in prayer, persistent in a daily surrender to the Holy Spirit’s control.  And while those medical alert system calls finally subsided yesterday afternoon, I know the world, the flesh, and the devil will never give up.  They’ll keep calling.  Because of that, there’s never a day I don’t need the Lord’s protection, strength, and grace.  Every day I must “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  And so must you.