Don't Play With Temptation

The story comes from London where a world-famous animal trainer gave a command performance featuring his wild animals. All kinds of animals were involved, lions, tigers, elephants, horses, and other circus animals. The trainer was most famous for a particular act he did with a boa constrictor that had grown to 35 feet long. He had raised this snake since it was a few days old. The trainer had fed it, cared for it, and worked with it daily. In this act, the trainer would lie down on the ground with his pet boa and the snake would wrap around his body.
 
The massive reptile was easily strong enough to crush the man into pieces, but it would always release him just as it had been trained to do. One day as the trainer performed with this snake, the act took an unexpected turn for the worse. Suddenly before the watching crowd, the boa kept squeezing and squeezing and before the crowd knew he was in danger, it was too late. That is exactly how Satan comes coiling himself around our lives. At first temptations may seem so innocent and perhaps harmless, but unless you are careful their grip gains the upper hand in our lives. The Evil One desires to suffocate our spiritual lives to death. Temptation is a powerful force and we must never lie down and play with temptation as if it were a harmless pet.

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Clark Tatum