THE HOOK

We all know about TRIALS and TEMPTATIONS but many mistake them to have similar meanings! Trails are sent to strengthen us whilst Temptations weaken us!

Temptation is the tool of the devil to lead us to eternal damnation! In 1 John 2:16, we learn – “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

To put all of this in better perspective, we need to use the analogy of a fishing hook. The hook is the Sin and the bait being, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. For some of you who have fished, will know how much you have to struggle even to remove the fish from the bait because of the way the hook is designed (with half an arrow, which resists escape from the hook!). So it is with sin … once it has hooked you, it takes a struggle to get free from it. Sometimes you may die trying!

1 John 2:15 warns - “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him”.

John 4:4 also warns – “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

Mat 6:24 admonishes - “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Isaiah tells us what the PRIDE of Lucifer got him, in Is. 14:12-15 - “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
¹³ For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:
¹⁴ I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.
¹⁵ Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.”

So how do we overcome this world?

1 John 5:4 is the answer! “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith”.

So what happens to those who have nothing but are tempted to sin and make money?

Phil 4: 19 is the answer to that one! “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus”.

BE HOOKED ON JESUS!