With the nicer weather, I am willing to go outdoors more often. One of the advantages of our community is a well-maintained bike trail. There are many options and they remain busy with individuals, families and groups on bicycles as well as joggers, walkers, and the occasional skateboard.

Because I don’t like heat, I prefer going earlier in the day but that has one disadvantage. Those using the trails early clear the trail of spider webs that formed overnight. You can tell when someone discovers a web by the spider dance. Athletic or not, people actively move when they walk or ride into a web. Bikers swing their arms but those on foot are generally the most animated…hence the likeness to dancing. But the biggest advantage to early rides may be that the trails are less crowded; and there are fewer witnesses to the choreography.

However amusing a spider dance appears, spider webs are traps. Victims have great difficulty getting loose if caught in them. The spider hides and waits patiently out of sight. When the victim becomes enmeshed in the web, the spider swoops in for an easy meal to devour.

Unless the spider is a horror movie version the size of a small building, humans aren’t the prey intended by trail webs. Indeed, the enemy seeking to devour us is not a spider, but Satan and his hordes. He sets traps and we walk right into them.

There are lessons to be learned from spider webs on a bike trail that we can apply to avoiding Satan’s traps.

3 Keys to Clear Satan’s “webs”

1. Realize that webs are there. Even if the way looks clear, the spider has been hard at work putting the web in place. Often, those using the trail only find them when they walk or ride into them. Perhaps they were distracted. Maybe they didn’t think they were there because they didn’t see one. They are nearly translucent and hidden for a purpose.
   • Especially when things are going well, don’t think for a minute that Satan has forgotten you; rather, he is hard at work designing a web to trap you.
   • “Be clearheaded. Keep alert. Your accuser, the devil, is on the prowl like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8, CEB)
2. If you look, you can see the dew on the web in the morning. Later in the day as the heat rises, this early clue has dissipated. Even if you can’t “see” the web, it is there.
   • Start your day connecting with God. This helps your spiritual eyes to “see” clues of the enemy at work throughout the day. It is a spiritual battle – “put on the armor of God.”
   • “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.” (Ephesians 6:12–13, NLT)
3. When you see the web – walk around or knock it down. In this way, you avoid walking or biking into it yourself – AND – the web is destroyed. Know that this is not a one-time battle – the spider will rebuild it.
   • One of the most common means Satan uses is our thoughts. If he can get us focused on his lies and condemnation, we can spiral into discouragement, despair, depression, etc. Take control of this battlefield with the truth of Scripture and what God says.
   • “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,” (2 Corinthians 10:3–5, ESV)