Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary goes about as a roaring lion, seeking for whom to devour.
DAILY READING – Hebrews 6:13-20; Exodus 1:1-2:25; Psalm 40
Recently, a news media pictured Israeli female soldiers at a picnic on the beach with AK47 slung over their soldiers. This perhaps mirrors the state of readiness of the Israeli military. Surrounded by enemy nations on every side, Israeli soldiers always live ready for battle. Since the tiny nation of Israel became a state in 1948, they have endured repeated wars and attacks, from the larger Arab nations around them.
Apart from the occasional wars, Israel also daily has to contend with terrorist attacks from radical Islamic groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Fatah, PLO. Greatly outnumbered by its enemies, Israel’s survival from 1948 to the present is surely a miracle. Having a small population, to increase its military might, every Israeli citizen above 18 years, male and female are enlisted in a 3 years mandatory military service. This way, every adult in Israel is trained to be a soldier. So that in times of war, Israel has a much larger pool of manpower with which to fight. Though after the 3 year mandatory training people go back to their normal lives, in times of war, in a flash, they quickly pull off their civilian clothes and don their military uniform. Thus, in Israel everyone lives battle ready. No wonder Israeli military is considered one of the finest military in the whole world.
In the same vein, as Christians, we are required to live battle ready. Ephesians 6 lets us know that we are in a serious spiritual battle. We are not wrestling with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness in high places. In this ongoing spiritual battle, you will survive based on the level of your spiritual readiness. Jesus severally admonished believers to watch and pray and to live ready.
1 Peter 1: 8 admonishes us to be sober and vigilant, because the enemy is going about as a roaring lion, seeking whom to devour. As a result of this spiritual battle, there is need for us to store up spiritual strength in readiness. The Bible says in Proverbs 24:10 that if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small. Because life’s battle can come suddenly, we are to live always prepared for war. We prepare by maintaining a fervent spiritual life, diligently studying the Bible and keeping the fire always burning on our prayer altars.
The battles of life are represented by the challenges that often come our ways.
The road of life is fraught with these challenges. What will determine our victory is how we react to them. Someone said life is 10% what happens and 90% how you react. We must be equipped through the Word to react in faith. Faith is the victory that will overcome. What you put into your mind is what you get out. When pressure is applied, your internal essence is what will come out. When you squeeze orange you get orange juice and when you squeeze grape, you get grape juice. When challenged what you have put into your mind is essentially what flows out. This is why you must be committed to putting the Word of God into your mind daily, so that when squeezed only the Word of God will come out. And the Word is the answer to every challenge or problem of life. It delivers to us the faith to triumph always.
PRAYER: Lord, help me to be rightly positioned to be a part of the mighty army You are raising in this end-time. May I never miss my place nor break ranks.
QUOTE:
As a child of God, you have to recognize that you are in the middle of an ongoing battle.
[ADAPTED FROM THE BOOK METAMORPHOSIS]