DON'T BITE THE BAIT

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

ARE YOU SEEKING?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

^1-3The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

Ever take the bait?

Ever get hooked?

I have said on several occasions that my weeks are often “thematic”; in other words my counseling and conversations tend to center around a “topic” or a particular challenge.

And this week it has been “the bait and the hook”.

It started Saturday with one who was (and still is) down the road in his recovery and doing quite well but had relapsed.

And as we unpacked how he came to drinking again, the cause became quite clear. He had been hooked. Some challenges and circumstances had resurfaced in his life that before recovery used to be easily settled with few beers.

There was the bait.

Not the beer, rather the “feeling” or the “effect” of the beer was the bait.

He was “feeling” a certain way, his thoughts turned to “how to feel better”, which led him to the store where he looked at the bait in the cooler and on the shelf and just like a bass captivated with a pretty lure by a skilled fisherman he eventually leaped at the bait and was hooked.

Bait and hook.

I was in the home of a young couple yesterday who are early to recovery and they were sharing how “their bait” had actually showed up at their door in the form of an old dope friend who was recently released from jail and looking to score. They hadn’t seen him for weeks, but suddenly he was there…

Ahhh…BAIT!

Thankfully they closed the door and didn’t take the bait.

The truth is we all are susceptible to “the bait”.

Maybe it is the mental playground of the internet. For another it might lurk inside the fridge. For the next person it may be a place, a smell, a time of year, an event, or an old tradition.

The bottom line is the ENEMY is in the business of baiting all day every day.

James 1:14
But every person is tempted when he is drawn away, enticed and baited by his own evil desire (lust, passions).

Don’t kid yourself. The bait is pretty, the bait is tasty, the bait is sexy AND THE BAIT IS PERSONAL.

Don’t think so?

There is no reason for the enemy to bait me with a bowl of broccoli but a beautiful babe pop up on the trending list on YAHOO and…you get my drift, right?

All of us, me included, need to be reminded that as alluring as the bait may seem, the bait is DEADLY.

Lustful actions, careless consumption, and danger decisions await those who bite the bait.

So we must make ourselves keenly aware that the enemy, like a skilled fisherman and hunter is baiting and setting traps all day, every day to catch us off guard, to pull us into sin, to separate us from Jesus.

Don’t kid yourself.

1 Peter 5:8
Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lionroaring [ in fierce hunger], seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

He has been prowling and baiting with great enthusiasm this week for sure. From Athens to Indianapolis from Columbus to Cincinnati and everywhere else I haven’t been. And to be honest, I sadly have nipped at the lure a time or two and tasted the hook.

But I leave you this week with some good news.

Thanks to the blood of Jesus, even when we are “caught”it is only a temporary thing. Jesus blood makes it impossible for us to STAY CAUGHT. Thanks to the blood of Jesus we SWIM IN CATCH AND RELEASE only waters!

1 John 1:9(NCV)

⁹ But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.

And I am so grateful for that, aren’t you?

I thought I would leave you with this little 3 minute link from James Robison to bring this home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IatWfGi62-k

Have a blessed weekend and BEWARE OF THE BAIT!

I love you all

Freedom Church

Pastor GDelaney