Topic: Conjugal Traps
Text: Genesis 16:1-16

Today, I want us to consider a very weighty subject. It is not everyone who wishes to overcome that actually does. It is not all those who start a journey that finish it. There are various examples in the Bible to support this fact. When Gideon was preparing to go to war, some 32,000 wanted to follow him. God saw that they were too many to fight the war, for them not to think that the battle was won by their strength. God told Gideon to tell those who were afraid to step aside. Twenty-two thousand of them left. God still saw that they were too man and pruned them down again. At the end of the screening only 300 men were actually used by God. God separates only few people for His use. The Bible tells us something in I Corinthians 9:24 “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” Not all that start a race finish it. Some fall by the wayside. Something would make some be unable to proceed any further. Not all who finish the race get prizes. “The race is not to the swift, the battle is not for the strong.” (Eccl. 9:11) Why is this so? It is the fastest runner who is supposed to breast the tape first. However, the fastest runner can fall by the wayside. The fastest runner can fall due to distractions on the way. Satan uses a lot of ways to distract people. We can briefly examine one of such ways. Satan uses the husband or wife. Let us check the story of Abraham in Genesis 16. God had promised a son. This promise was made when Abraham was about 75 years old. At this time he had no children. Sarah was about 65 years old. They had both passed childbearing age. Sarah asked Abraham to take her maid to have children for him in her stead. Sarah proposed this not knowing that she was inviting in a big problem. Abraham laughed when God insisted that Sarah would still have her own child. Abraham would have finished his race here. Can the pot argue with the potter? God however knew that it was not Abraham laughing but the devil at work. Abraham was spared but this laughter led to the captivity of the children of Israel for 400 years in Egypt.

Memory Verse: I Corinthians 9:24 - “Knew ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.”