“Navigate the storms of life with Christ as your guide and the Spirit transforming and renewing your heart.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – August 1, 2024
Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 1 Peter 5:8, CSB
I recently learned a painful lesson while using the string trimmer in my backyard. With music on in my headphones and a few hours of work already behind me, I was zoned out and simply going through the motions when I suddenly felt a surge of pain shoot through my body from head to toe. Within a few seconds, I realized that I had both stepped on and run the weed eater over a large yellow jacket nest, and they were making their displeasure known by repeatedly stinging me in violent protest.
In years of living in this home, I’ve never encountered yellow jackets and thus was neither expecting them nor proceeding with any sense of caution or attentiveness. Now, if someone had told me before I started work on the yard, “Tripp, there’s a massive yellow jacket nest in your yard,” my entire approach to the day would have shifted! It would have been defined by clear-headed caution and alertness at every turn.
So often we approach the whole of our lives like I approached my afternoon in the yard. We float through life half asleep, going through the motions and ticking the boxes, only to be caught flat-footed by life’s trials, sorrows, and temptations. Peter today is pouring a spiritual bucket of ice-cold water over our heads and yelling in love, “Wake up and be alert!”
The stakes are too high, and the threats are all too real. Evil prowls about us and is waiting to pounce. Temptations that enflame our passions are abundant and ever-present. We must, therefore, resist the naivety that sends us into the arena without armor and weapons for battle. When the enemy looks for people he can devour, let us be men and women who he instead finds filled with faith and alertly navigating the storms of life with Christ as our guide and the Spirit transforming and renewing our hearts. These are people from whom the devil flees!
Prayer
Father, may we stay alert to the dangers in our lives, yet even more alert to your presence with us and the truth that your light can drive away all darkness, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
Consider areas of your life in which you are half-asleep and instead need to be sober-minded and alert.
Related Reading
Matthew 24:42; 1 Corinthians 16:13; 1 Thessalonians 5:6
Worship Resource
The Porter’s Gate: Keep Watch and Pray
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