Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria Grace for Living Devotional Monday September 18, 2023 TOPIC: THE DOOR THAT LEADS TO ENTRAPMENT

BIBLE READING:

PROVERBS 5:1-14

1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. 3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. 7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.  

KEY VERSE:

“Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:” Proverbs 5:8  

MEDITATION:

My father though a College Lecturer was an ardent farmer. Because of the expanse of his farm and the crops he planted, different birds and rodents were constantly attracted. I observed carefully how he set traps for these strange farm visitors that were ready to devastate the entire farm at any visit. The traps were set in such a way that they all looked very enticing (with food) that neither the birds nor rodents could suspect that they were deadly.   

In today’s bible reading, there is another kind of entrapment explained by King Solomon – “a strange woman.” Strange women – prostitutes, adulteresses, free women, women of easy virtue, and more are all around us. The word translated "strange" basically means "not regular or known or related." The "strange woman" is one to whom the man is not related by marriage and therefore any sexual association with her is sinful and evil. The beginning of this sinful alliance may be ‘exciting and sweet’ but the end is pain and destruction (Proverbs 7:13-20).   

Every wise person checks their destination before buying a ticket for their trip (Proverbs 4:26). However, the free moral world where liberty and rights are freely abused thinks that people can violate God's laws and escape the consequences. The Wise Man concludes that it destroys the soul, brings wound and dishonour, and the consequent reproach shall not be wiped away (Proverbs 6:32-33).  

Would you choose to be with a strange woman or man or flee from them?  

PRAYER:

Dear Lord, deliver me from the power of every strange woman or man who sets traps for my destruction.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:

PROVERBS 12-13, 2 CORINTHIANS 4