Walk of Life – Day 7, September 2020, Thoughts from the Book of Proverbs.
Proverbs 7: 15 “Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.”
Do you remember the game – “Hide and seek”. We all must have played this game in our childhood days. The format of the game is so simple. In this game, a person closes his eyes and counts numbers. While he is counting, the others hide themselves in various places nearby. Once the person finishes counting numbers, he starts searching for the people who have hid themselves. Only two types of people get caught. The ones who do not find a hiding place and the ones who choose a weak hiding place.
In Proverbs chapter 7, we find a narration which reminded me of this game. A man void of understanding roams here and there. His ways are the ways where harlots dwell. The harlot comes out in search of a man. Without any delay and efforts, she finds this man void of understanding.
When we apply this to our daily walk, we learn two important lessons. We read in 1 Peter 5:8 about Satan who prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The temptations that we come across are his tricks to devour us. He is longing for it to happen.
When do we become a prey to Satan? We become a prey to him either when we go and present ourselves before him or when we choose the wrong hiding place.
When we receive a text from our friend or colleague asking what we are doing, we mostly reply saying “NOTHING MUCH”. Sometimes we find ourselves having nothing to do except for staring at the fan or the tube light. This is what the man void of understanding did. He did not know what to do so he started roaming on the roads here and there. Even in our case, when we have nothing to do our thoughts wander here and there. ‘Here and There’ is the place where Satan resides (Job 1:7). We ourselves go to Satan’s place by being idle. We read in the above verse, (Proverbs 7:15) the harlot says that she was searching for the man and she found him. In other translations we read that she says,” I found only you.” Satan roaming here and there finds our thoughts roaming in his space and tries to capture them.
There are few other people who do not call themselves idle. They say they are working. When they find out that they have nothing much to do, they indulge in playing online games, chatting, watching fun videos, scrolling on Facebook, and many more. We feel we are not idle when we do these. However, the truth is that these are the modern forms of idleness. Anything which is not profitable is considered as nothing. You feel that you are busy but you fail to realize that your status shows available for Satan to attack you.
Where do we hide? What can we do to hide? There must be a perfect hiding place where Satan is frightened to enter. That is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our perfect hiding place (Psalm 61:3). You need to place yourself in the fellowship of believers always. We read in Acts 2:42, continue in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. Spend some time in sharing the word of God to your friends, pray together and grow in Christ. This is the perfect hiding place where Satan can never enter. Eventually we win and Satan loses the game.
