Don't Take the Bait!

Read: Judges 16

Then she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death. So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite set apart to God since birth. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man." When Delilah saw that he had told her everything, she sent word to the rulers of the Philistines.Judges 16:15-18a

I always loved to go fishing with my grandpa. And the bass always tasted best in the springtime. However, in the spring, when the females lay on their nests, bass were not hungry. We would repeatedly cast the bait over a nest and draw the lure past the mama bass time and time again. Finally, she could not resist it. She would suck the hook into her mouth and end up on our dinner table.
The temptations of the world are ever present. Satan keeps placing the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life in front of us, hoping we succumb—and all too often, we do just that. How much of it is our own fault? We let ourselves be bombarded by secular TV, radio, magazines, books, movies, and billboards, all telling us we need what the world has to offer. These messages nag at us until we are tired to death. How much easier it would be if we just tried to limit what goes into our mind. Some female bass never take the bait—they turn around and face the other direction. Samson could have left Delilah and avoided all her prodding. God gives us a way out of every trial (I Corinthians 10:13). We can choose to flee from these temptations and replace them with righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness (I Timothy 6:11). Don’t take the bait.