On Guard

1 Peter 5:8 Be well balanced (temperate, sober of mind), be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a lion roaring in fierce hunger, seeking someone to seize upon and devour.

Have you ever played, “King of the Mountain” or “King of the Hill”? For those who grew up before video and computer games, evenings were filled with neighborhood kids finding an empty lot or someone’s back yard to play a variety games. Remember “Blind Man’s Bluff”, “Red Light-Green Light”, “Simon Says”, “Hide and Seek” or “Mud Clod Army”? They all one thing in common. All of them required a good leader.

The person that was “King of the Hill” had to stand at the highest point in a yard and the kids would slowly crawl up all sides of the hill to tag him. If the king saw them move, they had to go to the bottom of the hill. When the King would let his guard down, someone would tag him and they became King. A good King was one that had great peripheral vision to see the smallest movement from any side. The king needed keen focus.

Today it is easy to loose our focus of keeping a daily relationship with the Lord. We allow the news on the television to form opinions on what is right or wrong. Satan does not beat us over the head with a stick to get us to move away from the Lord. Instead he places little obstacles in our paths. We sleep late and so we put off our morning devotions. We have meetings to keep us from having any time with the Lord and  always keeps us away from our families. We pack our schedules so full that we have little time for a relationship with others or time to fulfill the needs of a neighbor. There are usually no major issues, just little distractions. Then one day we realize that we no longer help others, pray at meal times, give to the church, spend quantity or quality time with our families, maintain a devotional time, or even study God’s word. 

In fact the technology of Facebook, Twitter and the many other social networks make a relationship quite impersonal.  You can say the words in 90 characters but do you have the same empathy as you would having in holding their hands? 

I am reminded of the reality of small things pulling me away from God through a story, (which as a child I tried). I took a frog from our creek and put him in a bucket of cool water. He did not jump out when I set it on a stove. So I then turned the heat up very slowly. He still did not jump out. I kept this up until finally the kitchen began to smell and the frog was cooked, skin and all. It happened so slowly that the frog never knew what was happening.

Take a look at your life. Are you sitting in a pan of water and the enemy is turning up the heat slowly?

Read 1 Peter 5 again and realize that it’s time to jump out of the hot water and enjoy the cool grace that the Lord gives.