OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL
DATE: MONDAY MAY 6TH, 2024.
THEME: THE SNARE OF THE FOWLER I
MEMORISE:
Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour.
1 Peter 5:8
READ: Psalms 124:6-8
6 Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth.
7 Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
MESSAGE
The Bible teaches that there are some people called fowlers who hunt for souls. A very good example of a fowler is an adulteress (Proverbs 6:26). The Bible says that she hunts for precious life. The chief of all fowlers is the devil (1 Peter 5:8).
A fowler uses a snare to entrap prey. I grew up on a farm, and we used to get our meat by trapping 7animals. In the evenings, we would get traps, dig into the soil, put the traps in the hole, cover them with leaves, and sprinkle soil on the leaves so that everything would look normal. After setting the traps, we would put baits (usually corn) on both sides of the traps and then go to bed. At night, when an animal sees the bait around a trap, it will go close and eat some of the corn. When it sees that nothing happens, it moves forward, eats a little more and then goes on until it finishes all the corn on one side. Since it has eaten all the corn on one side, it ignorantly attempts to cross over to eat the corn on the other side, and suddenly, as it steps on the trap, it snaps shut and catches the animal. By morning, it is in our cooking pot. There are countless people in hell today because they tasted sin and nothing seemed to happen, so they kept sinning until they got caught in the devil's trap.
Many young ladies from good homes who were taught to keep their virginity have ended up badly because they had sex once, and since nothing happened, they continued until they got pregnant, contracted a disease, or became fully immersed in that terrible lifestyle. One thing a trapped animal experiences when the trap snaps shut is great fear. Likewise, one of the signs that a fellow is in trouble is fear.
The one who is caught in the trap of the fowler is called prey. Interestingly, prey sounds like pray. If a Christian does not pray, he or she will become prey. Psalm 91:3 Says that the one who dwells in the secret place of the Most High will be delivered from the snare of the fowlers. If you don't want to fall into the snare of the fowlers, your secret place with your Father must be on fire. If your altars grow cold, you may soon find yourself in the cooking pot. Pray fervently for at least one hour every day, and it will be difficult for you to be the devil's prey.
KEY POINT
If you don't pray, you will become prey to the devil.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Chronicles 27-29
AUTHOR: PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE
HYMN 22: SWEET HOUR OF PRAYER
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
That calls me from a world of care,
And bids me at my Father’s throne
Make all my wants and wishes known.
In seasons of distress and grief,
My soul has often found relief,
And oft escaped the tempter’s snare,
By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
The joys I feel, the bliss I share,
Of those whose anxious spirits burn
With strong desires for thy return!
With such I hasten to the place
Where God my Savior shows His face,
And gladly take my station there,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
Thy wings shall my petition bear
To Him whose truth and faithfulness
Engage the waiting soul to bless.
And since He bids me seek His face,
Believe His Word and trust His grace,
I’ll cast on Him my every care,
And wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer!
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share,
Till, from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home and take my flight.
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize,
And shout, while passing through the air,
“Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer!”
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