The Trapper Behind the Traps
Theme of the Week: Satan: Scary but not Invincible
Erwin Lutzer
Friday, November 2, 2007
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Key Bible Verse: But each one is tempted, when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed (James 1:14, NIV). Bonus Reading: James 4:7-10
The phrase "dragged away" [in today's Key Bible Verse] has the idea of being caught in a trap and carried away by our captor, and the word "enticed" in the original Greek means "to bait a hook." No animal would deliberately step into a trap or snap at a hook if it understood their nature. Like a hunter, Satan knows that he is abhorrent to us and must stay out of sight. Knowing that, he comes using different disguises and different names.
The hunter is a highly intelligent being who plots our downfall. His lures promise the prey what it would like to have but, in the end, gives the prey what he wants it to have! Satan uses his lures to get us to do something he wants us to do, while making us think the idea is wholly ours. He has two lies he wants us to believe. The first is "Just try my way once and you will be satisfied … once will not matter." So we fall into one of his snares and find ourselves trapped in shame, with our effectiveness for Christ neutralized. Then he comes along with a second lie: "Now that you have fallen, there is no use standing up again … you are mine." Both are lies; both have to be confronted and broken.
Behind the lie is the liar.
—Erwin Lutzer in Seven Snares of the Enemy
My Response: Which of Satan's lies do I need to confront today?
Thought to Apply: If the devil could be persuaded to write a bible, he would title it, "You Only Live Once."—Sidney Harris (journalist)
Adapted from Seven Snares of the Enemy (Moody, 2001) by permission.
Copyright © 2007 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity. 1 of 1
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Deliver me, Lord, from the twin errors of underestimating Satan and being intimidated by him.
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