HOW TO AVOID SATAN’S TRAPS
By Frank Eiklor and Cecilia Contreras
LESSON 34 Part 4
INTRODUCTION
Many Christians start out on fire for Jesus Christ. To start out strong in your spiritual life is great. But to hear a “Well done!” from the Lord, we must also finish strong. From our initial born-again experience to our final breath, we will be involved in spiritual warfare. A wily Satan will watch for any weakness in our lives and try to weaken or even destroy us. But our primary Teacher, the Holy Spirit, will instruct us how to know and obey the Word of God so that we can avoid Satan’s traps and defeat the powers of hell with the weapons of the Spirit.
This is the final lesson of a four-part study that covers seven important principles. The first five have already been given: 1) The Shaking Is From God; 2) The Seducing Spirit Of Success (Fame); 3) The Seduction Of Pride; 4) The Salvation Of Accountability; 5) The Specific Areas Of Accountability. Following are the final two principles.
Principle #6—The Subtle “Intimate Co-Worker” Trap
Many a good man has fallen into the trap of working too closely with an assistant of the opposite gender. Soon they’re really working too closely—sometimes at off-hours in meeting urgent deadlines or traveling together on the road to meetings and functions. Even if this unwise and unscriptural partnership avoids sin, it opens itself to scandalous gossip.
With so much of today’s emphasis placed on sex, and suggestive words and bodies advertised everywhere, lust hangs in the air like smog over Los Angeles. But the Word and power of the Lord can keep any man or woman from falling into Satan’s trap. “Flee fornication” was not just written to Timothy (II Timothy 2:22) but for all time. “Abstain from all appearance of evil”
(I Thessalonians 5:22) was written not merely to those with moral weaknesses but to those with pure hearts who would be unwise in developing a close relationship not helpful to the scriptural admonition to, “Keep thyself pure” (I Timothy 5:22).
Principle #7—The Safety Of A Watchful Mate Or A Godly Friend
I’ve already covered this subject in sufficient detail, but let me emphasize just a couple more points. Every Christian leader would be wise to develop a working partnership with his or her mate by attending speaking engagements and going on long journeys together. One thing is for sure, the man who would only take his secretary on such trips without his mate, would be the equivalent of a fool (and I very seldom use that word). One of God’s greatest gifts is the mate who gives her husband timely warnings—and knows he’s wise enough to take them. Those who are single need the counsel and fellowship of a godly friend.
No Christian leader need fall into sin, no matter the pressure. God has given His clear plan of biblical accountability as His means to escape every satanic trap. This does not mean a Christian leader is perfect. We walk with the God who is perfect, but our faults are many. Therefore, we Christian servant-leaders will have our falls, but they need not be fatal falls. They should be only that which is part of normal faults and failures with the added scriptural truth of Psalm 37:23.24, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in His way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand.”
CONCLUSION
May this four-part lesson be an encouragement in your life of servant-leadership. May God bring escape from every present and future trap set by Satan. And may every Christian take a more personal responsibility for those who are their Christian leaders—to pray for, care for, counsel and even correct us when our lives or messages do not line up with the Word of God. Then, hopefully, more of us will escape the fate of those whose Christian lives started out in triumph but ended in tragedy.
