Escape

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Our Daily Journey 7 2 Timothy 2:23-36
Then they will come to their senses and escape
from the devil’s trap (v.26)

Seventeen-year old Shirin arrived at Afghanistan’s Heart Regional Hospital with 90 percent of her
body covered in third-degree burns. The official story given to hospital staff was that Shirin had suffered
a cooking accident. Later in private, however, the teenager told doctors that she had set herself aflame.

Sadly, such acts are not rare. Many young Afghan women feel powerless and isolated. French nurse Marie-
Jose Brunel explains their predicament: “She [feels she] is here only to wash, to clean, to give baby . . . and
nothing more.” Trapped in a culture where they have no voice, women take drastic measures to escape.
The sensation of being trapped, confined, and bound, with no way of wresting free, is a horrible, suffocating
sensation. The Scripture describes the devil as one who works to ensnare all of God’s people and all of God’s
creation. The devil’s work always results in some form of bondage: a father compulsively driven to achieve
corporate prestige or to pad his reputation, a mother consumed with image—hers and her family’s. Some
people are addicted to heroin, but others are addicted to religious perfection. In each case, we’re trapped. And
eventually, we will all find ourselves desperate to be free.

The devil is the “father of lies” (John 8:44), and his traps showcase his many ways of twisting the truth. Our
way to be free, then, is to “learn the truth,” to see the false promises we have believed and the false hopes we have nurtured for what they are: lies that ensnare (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

And the truth we are to learn is not primarily facts or ideas, but a person— Jesus, for He is “the truth” (John 8:32). His name literally means God saves. This is an affirmation that He has already provided for our escape. —Winn Collier

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I fear that somehow your pure and undivided
devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as
Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of
the serpent (2 Cor.11:3).

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Where do you feel trapped—and what lies
are associated with your situation? How does
Jesus’ truth unveil these lies?

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