Proverbs 6:5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

It was early morning, mist still drifting through the trees higher up. Grey skies with flecks of pink like some uniquely Scottish opal. My slowly waking head was still clearing and my thoughts were clinging to the excitement of climbing for the day. No one else to be seen or heard, only the occasional sound of the curlew and oystercatcher drifting in on the breeze. The nearest house was five miles away.

I traversed the loch shores, knee-deep in fresh green grass, the odd fern fighting for its place.

I stopped for a few seconds to breathe, to just be. Looking out over the glass still water, tiny islands populated with Caledonian Pines, standing to attention, copper bark duller in the morning light. They would glow later as the sun finished its daily mission.

Each tree was planted to honour a fallen comrade, who had given all that others may be free. My thoughts drift towards my own father, leading his battalion onto those fierce beaches of Normandy on D-day.

I turn towards the waiting mountain and start the slow climb.

 

KNOWLEDGE

We have a role to play according to the writer. What is my strategy to avoid the traps and pitfalls of my own impulsiveness or the traps that others knowingly or unknowingly set for me?

I am encouraged here to think and act proactively.

What issues hold me back in life, what areas do I struggle in, or stumble over? What is my escape route?

An effort is conscripted. But don’t for one moment think you can do this on your own. There is a call to pray as if we can do nothing on our own, and to work as if our prayers are of no avail.

What great advice! I am instructing my heart this morning not to dissect God’s word, but to inject God’s word. It’s no good to understand this and not apply it, but it’s all good to have this wisdom living inside me daily. I can draw on the full resources of heaven as God’s living word finds its place inside me, where it can dwell and flourish. Oh, Allan makes time to ponder today.

UNDERSTANDING

Let’s pick one word from this verse to look closer at and see if that can help us gain a deeper insight into how God would love us to live?

The word in Hebrew for “gazelle” is pronounced as “saba” and this word appears thirty-one times in the Old Testament. In the ESV it is translated into the English words, gazelle; glory; and, beautiful.

In our verse here we can see the idea of a young deer fleeing with all its speed and agility over treacherous terrain.

WISDOM – what is God asking you to lay down or let go of today?

STRENGTHS THOUGHT: Analytical, makes great choices and helps others make great choices, cheering them on as they push through.

Allan’s Unauthorised Version – [may your beauty and glory be spared from control, like a sparrow from the power of one who sets snares.}

PRAYER: Father, thank you for today. Help me to see the traps of the enemy and avoid them altogether with great foresight and your insights. Thank you.

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