Morning & Evening Devotional Reading–

January 24– Morning

 by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and edited by W. C. Neff

“Surely he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler.” 

—Psalm 91:3

 

God may save us from the snare of the fowler by never letting us enter it in the first place, or, if we do fall into it, he provides a way to escape its grasp. How does he keep us from the snare? Trouble is often the means that God uses. God knows that a pathway we’re taking will soon end in destruction, and he mercifully sends difficulty. We say, “Lord, why is this?” not knowing that our trouble has been the means of delivering us from far greater evil. Many have been saved from ruin by their sorrows and their crosses; these have kept the birds away from the net.

At other times, God keeps his people from the snare of the fowler by giving them great spiritual strength so that, when they are tempted to do evil, they say, “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” How good it is to know that, even if the believer, in an evil hour, falls into the net, God will bring him out of it! If you have fallen into sin, be cast down, but don’t despair. Hear what your Redeemer says to you: “Return, O wayward son; I will have mercy upon you.”

But you may think that you can’t return because you’re captive to your own sin. Then listen to the promise again: “Surely he will deliver you out of the snare of the fowler.” You will be delivered from all the evil into which you have fallen, and, though you will continually repent of your ways, he who has loved you will receive you with joy and gladness. No bird of paradise will die in the fowler’s net! [M&E]