Be On Guard

From: Daily Disciples

1 Peter 5:8 "Stay sober and alert. Your opponent the devil is prowling like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."

Satan is alive and well. His mission has been the same since the Garden of Eden: to crush, kill and destroy. He is good at twisting concepts and manipulating ideas into truths that are not real. Satan's battlefield starts within your circumstances. He frustrates your plans to get that peace within your heart to crush you into a frenzy. When your insides do not match your outsides, you have just become a hypocrite and Satan loves to make hypocrites out of Christians. Once you are aware of this scheme (which for some of us is a lifetime), you learn to pray and resist him by drawing near to God. You do this by learning how to discipline your behavior and choosing not to allow the fruits of the Spirit to be crushed.

Praying, submitting to God and meditating on scripture are the next steps. Then Satan's next plan of attack hits your mind. Now, Satan cannot read your mind but he can discern what you are thinking by your words and behaviors. He can also put his thoughts into your mind. I have found that many times I do not need the devil to put bad thoughts into my mind because I can do that all by myself. I am capable of taking my own self out of the ministry or walking with the Lord, with very little effort or attack from him.

So "be on guard" because Satan is seeking someone to devour. If you look weak, think weak, act weak, and your words express a weakness in your faith, then you can surely be his next target. Peter warns us to be sober and vigilant. Both words have similar Greek meanings: to watch and keep awake. We have to be more alert than he is. Obviously, this is more difficult for us because we do not see into the spiritual realm to understand what is happening. We discredit or disregard the work of the enemy, allowing him to have the advantage over us.

We have to pray that the Lord opens our eyes and gives us discernment to know the truth. Too many Christians are apathetic and complacent. They live on the defense without any strength to fight back instead of the offense in moving forward. It is true that the enemy does not have to bother with an apathetic and complacent Christian, that is just where he wants us to be, but God has so much more for us. The Lord has won the battle; we just have to put on the armor of God. The Lord wants to give us an abundant life on this earth, so why not start living it today!