Take heed

Oh, brothers and sisters in Christ, we need to be earnestly guarding our hearts and our minds! Sin attacks us on all fronts and in every way, and it creeps into the dirty crevices that we fail to apprehend.

We seem to think that the enemy plays by the rules... that he will shoot where we have armor, always in front of us and in broad daylight. No, he attacks where we are most vulnerable. He finds the gaps in our armor, the cracks in our fortress. He does the best he can to pollute our water source, weakening us from within. He attacks at "night" when our minds are not engaged, our emotions are vulnerable, and our senses are easily misled. He is ruthless and always desires to take glory away from God.

It starts with the smallest negligence... failure to find weak spots, slipshod patchwork instead of getting to the source of the problem. I have found myself in positions where I am completely brought to my knees because of a fracture in the most unexpected part of my life. Although I would hardly never say it, I think of myself as "above" weakness. It is undiscerned spiritual pride, and God opposes it.

Do you see how we need to take care to protect every part of our lives? By becoming Christians, we deny the nature of the world and take up the cross of Christ. He says through the apostle Paul that "those who are of the flesh cannot please God" (Romans 8:8). Oh, please, open your hearts to the conviction of Christ and do not fall prey to the enemy's attacks! "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)

"Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12)