01/24/2019
Are you feeling trapped in a life of sin, or perhaps you find yourself in the throes of great temptation, and don’t know how you can save yourself? Well if this is the case, look to the Lord God because it is His intention to redeem you from your sin, and to save you from all temptation.
“Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.”
Psalms 91:3 KJV
I love this scripture because it tells us that God not only provides for our escape from the snare of sin before we find ourselves there, but He also allows us to avoid the noise of temptation that drives us there in the first place.
So often in life we see the sin before us, and yet we flit around it like a moth does a flame. Why is it that we are so tempted by the light that we ignore the heat and fire? When I was a boy in Augsburg Germany, I lived in an American neighborhood, and each year on the Fourth of July there was a large fireworks display in the field behind my house. Over the next few days men would come and remove any unexploded fireworks so that no one would get hurt by them, and my parents stressed to me that I was not to play in that field until it had been cleared of all danger.
Yet the danger beckoned me, and those unexploded fireworks called to me as surely as Bathsheba called to David... I just had to have one of them. So one morning I slipped into the field and there, attached to a long wooden guide, I found a cylindrical bag of unexploded gunpowder. Carefully, I removed the bag and then opened one end of it. I took a kitchen match, struck it on a rock, and threw it into the opening... nothing happened. So I did this a couple more times becoming more emboldened, and less careful, each time... yet nothing happened. Finally, I struck the match, and looking into the open end of the bag I guided the match into the opening and held it there. The powder ignited and in a flash an immense flame shot from the end of the bag! It was so intense that it not only burnt my hand that was guiding the match but burnt my face severely... I had no eyebrows or eyelashes left, and was in great pain. I ran home, but I had disobeyed, so even in great pain I was afraid to let my mother see me. I filled a bathroom sink with cold water and submerged my face and hand into it... this provided some relief, but not enough. Finally, in desperation, I went to my mother and she rushed me to the hospital where I was treated, and later sent home to recover.
Once home my mom made a bed on the couch where I could be close to her all day, and tenderly nursed me back to health, dabbing my face and hand with ointment. To my recollection, the only punishment for my disobedience was her saying “this is why we didn’t want you to go into the field.” The following year... I obeyed.
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”
Acts 3:19 KJV
Isn’t it the same with sin? We have been told what is right, but the temptation calls to us, and after several flirting near misses we give into it. Then with guilt all over our faces and hands we attempt to hide from God. At last, when the pain and guilt becomes too much, we go to Him seeking relief, and He not only forgives, but loves us back to health and into a His good graces.
“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God.”
Jeremiah 3:22 KJV
God’s desire is to keep us from the snare of sin, but it is also to save us once we fall into the it, not because He wishes to gloat over our failure, but because He loves us too much to see us remain there, and He knows our pain as certainly as we do. Even the overwhelming love of a mother and father for their child cannot surpass the love of God for each of us... it was He who gave His Son Jesus as a sacrifice to redeem us. What earthly parent would give one child to save another? God is the source of all Love, and it is beyond measure.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
1 John 4:7-8 ESV
So look to God and Jesus Christ in those moments of temptation, and ask them to remove you from its grasp, but if by your overwhelming weakness you find yourself entrapped by sin, all is not lost... ask Jesus for His intercession, and God for His mercy, grace, and forgiveness.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for your mercy and the grace that flows from your Son Jesus Christ. Thank you for your hand that plucks me from the snare of sin, and your commandments, and Word, that shields me from temptation. Strengthen me Merciful Father so that I will not feel the pain of being separated from you by my sins. Strengthen me so that I can remain surrounded by your love always, especially when temptation is attempting to lure me away. If however I should falter and fail you, hear my voice as I cry out for rescue and forgiveness from the pain and suffering of the sin I have been ensnared by. Know always that I love you Lord, and though I might stray, I will bleat and call out to you, as a lamb from the briars, waiting and longing for you to come for me. Rescue me Holy Father, make a bed for me close to you, and and wash away my sins with the cleansing blood of Jesus. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you my God who guides me away from the traps of sin, plucks me from their jaws when I fall prey to them, and washes me clean in Christ so that you can forgive me, and hold me forever in your arms. Praised be to you who loves me like none other, and sings to me that I would be comforted. In your love is your glory, and all glory is yours forevermore.
Rich Forbes