There are all kinds of traps. You can buy little traps to catch ants, roaches, or mice in your home. There are bird traps, mosquito traps, and fly traps. If you go fishing, you put a little hook on the end of your line, add some bait to it, and throw it into the water. If a fish gets on that hook and you reel it in, that fish is caught--trapped.

There are also people traps. The Bible says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Satan sets traps. Before we were saved, he already had us in his trap.

When we were born, we were caught in sin. Satan's desire is to keep us in this trap, to stop us from being freed. However, when we come to the Lord in prayer, repenting and asking forgiveness for our sins, the Lord comes into our lives. He sets us free from the devil's trap.

As long as we walk with the Lord and obey His Word, we are out of the snare of the enemy. Yet the devil is continually setting traps, trying to draw us back into the snare of sin. As Christians, we need to be constantly on guard, and we need to learn to recognize his tactics.

Sometimes he uses other people in his quest to set traps for our souls. Jeremiah 5:26 says, “For among my people are found wicked men: they lay wait, as he that setteth snares; they set a trap, they catch men.”

I have noticed that when an expert fisherman is not catching anything, he tries something different--a different bait or a different spot. And he will tend to catch fish when nobody else does. That is what the devil does too.

If he tries one thing and it does not work, he will try another trap. Satan uses things that appeal to us, things that appeal to the flesh and the eyes, to try to lure us into his traps. Those things can seem so good.

The very first people that God created walked into a trap that Satan had set for them. Adam and Eve were not in the devil's trap in the beginning; they were created without sin. They came into a perfect world and lived in a beautiful garden where everything was wonderful. God told them that there was only one thing they were not to do. And that thing was exactly what the devil wanted them to do; he wanted them to sin.

In that case Satan tempted Eve to eat of that fruit; she listened and by taking a bite, she walked right into the devil's trap. She was not satisfied with being caught in the trap alone, so she shared the fruit with Adam, and he ate. Sin entered into the world because of their disobedience, and since then all people have been born in sin.

Samson was another who fell into the devil's trap. Like all of us, he was born with a purpose for his life. When temptations came along and Delilah tried to get him to tell her the secret of his strength, he gave in. What happened then? The Philistines shaved his head, put out his eyes, and forced him to work at a mill like an animal.

Samson's trap is one that Satan will try, especially on young people. He would like to get a Christian “unequally yoked” with an unbeliever. Samson formed an attachment with Delilah, an ungodly woman.

Samson wanted her whether he was supposed to have her or not. He paid for it, didn't he? Dating and marrying an unsaved person will have disastrous results. Pray and consecrate to God, and then give Him time to work. He will put together the very best plan for everyone involved.

We need to watch out for anyone who would have us do something that we know is not according to God's Word. It might be a close friend, a family member, or an associate, but whoever it is, don't listen! Don't fall into any trap that the devil is setting.

It is possible to avoid Satan's traps. For an example, consider Daniel. As a young man, he was taken out of his homeland to the king's palace in a foreign land.

He had a determination to serve the true God even if it meant being different from those around him. From the beginning, he took a stand and said he would not eat the meat from the king's table. The devil had the trap set, but Daniel did not fall into it.

After Daniel was older, Satan set another trap—in fact, there likely had been many traps between this and the first one. At this time, some of the political leaders were jealous of Daniel's high position in the king's court, so they tried to find a way to bring him down. Finally, they said there was no fault in him, so they manufactured a decree regarding how he prayed to his God.

These men set it up with the king that nobody could pray to anyone except the king for a certain length of time.

Daniel knew of the king's edict, but he went into his house, opened his window toward Jerusalem, and prayed three times a day, just as he had done before. Yes, his opponents came and put him into the den of lions.

He was there all night, but God brought him out safely. The trap was cleverly set to stop him from praying to the true and living God, but did he fall into it? No!

One of the big traps that Satan has in front of Christians today is trying to prevent prayer. He will put anything possible in the way to hinder us, because prayer is so important. Prayer is how we stay out of the snares that the devil sets for us. Prayer is how we live a victorious Christian life.

Are we going to fall into the devil's trap and cease praying? Or are we going to say, “I will take time to pray”?

We need to catch a vision of prayer. Many of us know some prayer warriors, and we thank God for them. However, as they get older, we know they will not be around forever. Who is going to pick up the responsibility? Who is going to pray? Some might say, “I am too young,” but this message is for all ages.

When I was a teenager, my older brother had a room up in the attic of our house. At night, he would spend about an hour up there praying. I would hear him talking to God. In the morning when I would go downstairs, he would be there on his knees. He was just in high school some of that time, but he had learned to pray.

Down through his life, the devil has set traps for him. He has gone through some hard things, but that habit of daily prayer has pulled him through. With God's help and grace, we can pray, and those prayers will be a great protection against the devices of the enemy.

The Old Testament tells about a little maid who did not fall into the devil's trap for her. She was taken captive from her homeland and made a servant, and the trap of potential resentment was certainly in place. Her master had leprosy. She could have said,

“They took me from my homeland, so it serves him right.” Instead, she let it be known that if only her master could go over to Samaria and meet the prophet, he would be healed. Through her comments, Naaman went and was healed of his leprosy.

More than that, he heard about the true and living God because this little maid had the right kind of attitude and did not walk into the devil's trap.

How do we avoid Satan's snares? When the devil is tempting you and you feel as though you are about to fall into his trap, cry out to God, “Help me! I want to be true; I want to stand for You.” Psalm 142:5 says, “I cried unto thee, O L ord : I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” God will be there to help you.

Use the Word of God. Psalm 119:110 tells us, “The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts.” What did Jesus do when He was tempted by the devil? He said, “It is written,” and went on to quote Scripture. We can use the Bible to stand against the power of the enemy.

Many of us have heard the expression, “Just say No!” That little two-letter word can be so hard to utter. Referring to the devil, Scripture tells us, “Whom resist stedfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:9).

Resist! Be watchful! If you do that and pray, the Lord will help you stay out of the traps that the enemy sets for you. God is with us. He will lead us around those traps and give us victory. We can be more than conquerors through Jesus.