Entrapment

For Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Proverbs 23:26-28

My son, give me your heart,
and let your eyes observe my ways.
For a prostitute is a deep pit;
an adulteress is a narrow well.
She lies in wait like a robber
and increases the traitors among mankind.

Understand the motivation of the prostitute - it is to get your money. That is all she is about and nothing else. She wants your money and as much as she can get. The "pleasures" she gives and makes believe that she receives are merely a scheme to take money. And it works. You will come back. You will defy the principles you hold dear. You will risk the lost of your closest relationships and the respect of those you respect the most. You will risk disease. And all the while you will give your money, even going into debt. You will become a traitor to your faith, your spouse, your friends, even to yourself. And you will continue to give your money to the one who has ruined you.

So it is with other worldly pleasures. Beware of anything that leads you to live a double life while it takes your money. Understand that all these pleasures are "given out" for one purpose - to take your money. The prostitute does not enter her line of work out of the desire to give pleasure. She does so because it is good money. The casinos do not exist for people's pleasure. They exist to take money. Prostitutes and casino owners do not go to bed at night sastified with how happy they have made others. If they go to bed happy, it is from counting their profits made off of you and which they have entrapped you to keep giving.

What a contrast to our God. People turn away from him because he is "demanding." And yet he is the only one who truly gives with our happiness in mind. He gave to us while we were his enemies and he continues to give to us as his children. He will top it all off with eternal glory. He turns our very giving into receiving, for we find the very act of giving to be a blessing. He will give to you throughout today. He will only do what is for your good. He will turn suffering into wellbeing. You will always be in his thoughts; your good will always be his plan. Why become a traitor to such a God? It is wrong, but it is also foolishness. Why get caught in a trap where you must always be spending more money to get your "pleasures," when you can buy the everlasting pleasures of God without any cost?