Articles
Be Vigilant
Be Vigilant
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8)
Traveling down the road of life will not always be a smooth and easy passage. There will be those times when we will encounter cares and burdens that will trouble our hearts and some of those burdens will become a great test of our faith in God. And then there is our adversary, the devil, who is around every turn in the road ravenously seeking to devour us. He is our enemy! The devil is always looking for any little foothold we will give him. Never forget that any area of our life that we fail to constantly guard, he will seize upon it. This warning from 1 Peter 5:8 should be taken seriously by each one of us.
The devil is a liar and deceiver (John 8:44, Revelation 12:9). The first lie ever told was by the devil when he deceived Eve into disobeying God’s word (Genesis 3) and he has continued to lie and deceive men ever since that day. 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that he will disguise himself as an angel of light. He is the world’s greatest illusionist. He has the power to become whatever he wants to become in his effort to deceive and entrap us. We had best heed the advice of Peter to be sober of spirit and be on the alert. If we are not serious and ever watchful, it will open the door for the devil with his craftiness to lead us astray.
The devil knows how to masterfully twist the word of God. Since he cannot abolish that word, he spares no effort in convincing men that the Bible is nothing more than a good book in a long line of good books and it doesn’t make any difference whether you obey its commands or not. Afterall, God doesn’t really mean what he says. Isn’t this exactly what he did with Eve (Genesis 3)! The devil knows that by destroying our faith in God’s word, he destroys our faith in God.
If we are going to successfully contend against this mighty foe, we must arm ourselves with the spiritual weapons that will enable us to overcome temptations and snares of the devil. Ephesians 6:11 tells us to put on the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand the devil. If we diligently follow the instructions of Ephesians 6:11-18, I have no doubt in my mind as to whether or not we will be able to successfully stand against the devil and ultimate lay hold on eternal life (1 Timothy 6:12)
We must not for one moment let up in our fight against the evil one. We must conquer or be conquered! The battle against the devil will not be an easy one but as a faithful child of God we can go boldly to the throne of grace and receive mercy and find the help we need to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one (Hebrews 4:16, James 4:7-10, 1 Peter 5:6-11).
Charles Hicks