KEY SCRIPTURE Gen 3:1
Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
APPLICATION
Everybody remembers the board game Snakes & Ladders. You roll the dice and take your chances. If you're lucky, you land on a ladder and rise to greater levels on your way to a big win. You feel as if nothing can stop you. If you're unlucky, you land on a snake and lose all the dice rolls you had before.
The game isn't too far from the Christian life. Some days are basic, some full of elation, while others are full of serpent traps. I recall speaking to one person who said that a loss came right on the heels of a win.
Snakes & Ladders differs from real life because, in the game, we are at the mercy of the dice. When it comes to the dice roll, we don't know what is ahead until the dice stops rolling and displays its number. Then our immediate future is determined. A Christian is never at anyone's mercy but God's. Sometimes life is everyday; other times, we rise to great heights as if we've climbed a ladder. But, despite the serpent waiting for us, we don't need to land on it.
Proverbs 27:12 says, "A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself; but the simple pass on, and are punished." In the game, we can foresee the evil snake on the board yet are powerless to do anything. We can't hide the fact that we might land on it and go downhill. Neither can it be bypassed. But in real life, we can use our wisdom and avoid the penalty.
Is your life like Snakes & Ladders, sometimes winning with Christ while at other times losing to the snake? Like the board game, the serpent is always there. But in life, you can do something about it. You can tread on the serpent's head while not being bitten on your heel. Greater is He that is in you, than the snake.
James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
PRAYER Dear Lord, the board game is so close to life, particularly when it comes to the waiting serpent. Please guide me so I can bypass the trap, and give me the wisdom and strength to resist if and when I need it.
Photo by VD Photography
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