Fwd: Entrapment

"Pull me from the trap my enemies set for me, for I find protection in you alone."  Psalm 31:4 NLT

I apologize in advance is this too much information.  As I was sitting in the restroom...I go there to pray and refocus while I am at work...I heard the word 'entrapment.'  I heard it almost as a poem (it kinda makes me wish I still wrote poetry and that I could say this at a spoken word venue) of how the enemy has set and laid traps for us.

I heard it like this:

Like an officer in between the pillars at night with his radar gun and with his lights out, waiting for an unassuming speeder to catch so does the enemy lie in wait for us.

Entrapment.

Like a snake in the grass or a lion chasing a zebra or wildebeest or an ass...so does the enemy set traps to steal us away.

Entrapment.

Fear and judgmental-ism and self-righteousness and anger and worry and racism and sexism and hatred, even mere criticism are all his tools...the hate-filled words he uses to divide us, trapping us like a fisherman traps fish and crab and shrimp in his nets to feed the masses.

Entrapment.

To steal us away from our eternal home, he uses the cravings of power and greed and lust and deceitful fleshly desires to lure us like a child is lured away from their parents for candy.

Entrapment.

Much like he did Eve in the garden of Eden he taunts us with fame, wealth beyond recognition and materialistic bounty, he draws us over the plank into a sea of separation from God.

Entrapment.

Recognize the traps.

He entraps us through our own desires.  Through those late night, secret thoughts, through and under the guise of wealth-building and fame and meeting our every fantasy, he calls us away from God.  And it is usually not in one big leap, but little by little.  It is like the wrong turn when following a GPS.  Instead of turning around and getting back on track, many of us, including myself, have all tried to go it alone, ignoring the GPS's voice as she beckons to us to turn around.  We try to find our own way to the promised land and we end up lost...and some of us are lost forever.

As I thought about this in light of all the things going on in the world, I laughed.  I didn't laugh because it's funny.  I laughed because God will expose these things to us.  God will remove the blinders of how the enemy has tried to ensnare us.  So how can we recognize a trap of the enemy?

Well what I have learned so far is that if there is anything that leads you away from God and what He has spoken to you, either directly or indirectly through the Word--to the point that it has you ignoring that tug of God on your heart to call on Him--that is a trap that you may have gotten yourself captured in.  

The traps of the enemy are varied and expansive.  We must remember that while God allows the enemy to target us at times for our testing, other times we succumb to his temptation because we refuse to recognize the enemy at work in our lives through those things we desire.  I must stress that wanting wealth, desiring fame and living abundantly are NOT wrong.  But what is wrong is idolizing these things or allowing the pursuit of these things to cripple us to the point that we do not acknowledge God.  Even being set in your ways and refusing to change can indicate a trap that the enemy has caught you in.  Recognize the enemy for who he is and know that through Christ you have already overcome the enemy.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.  1 Corinthians 10:13

You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.  1 John 4:4