Today I read in Proverbs 13:14 that "the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, turning a person from deadly traps."
I think about the wise teachers in my life who turned me away, at just the right time, from traps of all forms: bad relationships, risky behaviors, poor business decisions, or any other potentially ensnaring situations.
I read throughout scripture of the ways idols, evil desires, our own words, the pursuit of wealth, drunkenness, and even religious people can seduce us away from the fountain of life.
I also read in Psalm 31 the plea that God might keep us free from the trap set for us as we take refuge in Him.
Is there a trap set for us? I read in 2 Timothy 2 about coming to our senses to "escape the trap of the devil."
I pray that God brings wise teachers into my life and that I might become one of those wise teachers for others. Traps wait all around us, but wise words turn us from them. We need great wisdom and discernment to avoid traps because I realize how hidden they are. They don't look like traps; they masquerade as freedom, happiness, pleasure, fame, and wealth, but they ensnare us in the end.
Good, Heather
ReplyDeletePs 55:12
For it was not an enemy who insulted me, Then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, Then I would have hid myself from him.
Ps 55:13
But it was you, a man like me, My companion, and my familiar friend.
Don't forget pride and delusion, as in one who thinks they can snap a mouse trap and move their hand before it hits them.
A spider web never chases anyone . It's your feet that walk you into it. The spider just sits and waits for you.