Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be courageous; be strong.
1 Corinthians 16:13 NIV
The closer you are to God, the better your relationship with Him, the brighter your shine. Your goodness radiates from you, and you glow with inner light. It is a warmth and a lightness that you feel from the inside out.
However, a sobering thought that accompanies this is that this glow also makes you attractive to negative forces that want to kill your light.
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 NLT
This is not being catastrophic, or overly dramatic. It’s just being wise, being mentally alert and aware of your surroundings, and your situation. Our hope is in Jesus, and we find our joy in Him. But we can’t profess to be true believers if we are not simultaneously mindful that there is still evil in this world.
We are being called upon to be reflective and introspective, but not to stop at that mental, head knowledge level. Rather, we should go one step further, into active reasoning, flexing our brain muscles, and making sure that this part of us is protected, covered, and heavily guarded.
And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert!
Mark 13:33 NLT
Because we don’t know when, we don’t know where, and we don’t how, but the thief that comes to kill, steal, and destroy is only looking for the slightest crack in your armor to get through. It only needs the tiniest sliver.
“But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth.
Luke 21:34-35 ESV
How to be on your guard
1. Do personal devotions
The battlefield starts in the mind, and if yours is on solid ground, shored up heavily with the Word of God, then your are halfway to being protected. Seek out His Words as if they are your daily bread, something you can’t live without, can’t survive without.
2. Be self-introspective
Activate the Word that you just digested. Do not stop at just reading. Speak it, live it, love it. Turn the Words over and over in your head as you reflect on how it affects your day to day living. See how it applies to the situations you encounter, to the stories of the people around you, even in the shows that you watch on television. Recognize when it comes up in the unlikeliest of places, and rejoice when God reveals it to you.
3. Keep yourself close to the church
Christianity is not a solitary endeavor. God never meant for you to be a lone wolf. There is safety in numbers after all, and the first two items in this list are easier done, and definitely a lot more fun, when done with a community of like-minded believers. Sharing is caring after all.
Going back to our earlier analogy, remember that light that shines within you? Imagine a hundred, a thousand, a million other lights all together, shining for His glory. Can you imagine the blaze?
It will be brighter than the sun.