THERE is a plant called Venus’s-flytrap that eats flies. It has no wings and it cannot move toward them, but it catches them and makes a meal of them. When the sun shines and the flies are sporting about, a sort of sweet gum comes out of this plant, and the silly flies come down to taste it. Then while they are feeding, the long teeth on the edge of the leaves lock together, the plant closes up, and the flies are caught fast. Isn’t that a clever trap?
Are you going to be caught like the flies for the sake of something sweet? Perhaps you do not understand me, but you know well enough that boys and girls are often led into sin by things that look very nice. They will not only spend their pennies but risk their souls to get these things which they believe will make them happy. Satan knows this well enough, and so, in his wicked desire to have you in hell, he will bait his trap for you with something sweet.
I know a little girl who was caught like that. On her way home from school with a friend, she stopped at the drug store to buy something which her mother had asked her to get. As the druggist gave her three pennies in change, both girls looked longingly at the tempting array of candies spread out by the cash register.
“Doesn’t your mother let you spend the change?” said Elizabeth.
“Yes,” said my little friend, though she knew she had no right to say it, and in another moment both girls came out of the store sucking sweet candy sticks. Surely this was one of the devil’s traps.
The little girl knew she had done wrong, and the candy was not sweet when she thought of her sin. It seemed as if Satan’s great trap had closed upon her as she felt how she had sinned, but how good to know that the Lord is able to deliver from Satan’s power. On the cross of Calvary He died to save poor guilty sinners who could never save themselves. There He bore the judgment for the sins of all who believe, and now as a risen and, glorified Saviour He is mighty to save everyone who cries out, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Luke 18:1313And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. (Luke 18:13).
Have you been caught, like the flies, for the sake of something “sweet”? What a deceiver Satan is! Oh be warned against his “sweets,” and come to the Lord Jesus whose loving-kindness is far better than all the enemy offers to you. He is mighty to save you.
Messages of God’s Love 1/2/1955