Be Still . . .
Devotionals for Daily Living ©

Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart.
(Hosea 4:11 (NKJV))

Have you ever set out a trap to catch a mouse?

Chances are that you set out something as bait to entice the mouse to come near the danger. Once it came close, it was drawn to the very thing that would eventually cause it to lose its life.

Sin is the same. Sin is the bait that Satan uses to draw us into his trap. Once we are enticed to come close and sample the physical sensations that sin can bring, he knows that he has us hooked. Once hooked, he sets the trap to close in around us, causing us to thrash about just like the mouse once it gets caught in the trap. The sensations of the sin are the very things that enslave the heart and can cause us to eventually lose our life.

Sin enslaves the heart. It kills the body and it kills the soul.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 6:23 (NIV))

What do you consider to be the greatest sin? Have you committed that sin? Let's stop for a moment and take one commandment.

You shall not steal.
(Exodus 20:15 (NIV))

Have you ever taken something that did not belong to you? Even taking an ink pen by mistake means that you have taken something that did not belong to you. That makes you a thief. You have sinned in the eyes of God. Now, imagine sins that have a sensation that entraps and enslaves. Can anyone resist the temptation?

At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
(Mark 1:12-13 (NIV))

Jesus resisted!

Through Him, we can be redeemed.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
(John 3:16-21 (NIV))

Resist sin. Focus on Jesus and the salvation that He brings.

Allow Jesus to break the chains!

Copyright 1998 - 2026 Dennis J. Smock
Daily Living Ministries, Inc.
https://www.dailylivingministries.org
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