Staying Alert

“Staying Alert!”

By Zach Wood

1 Peter 5:8

“Be self-controlled and alert.  Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Here we have a simple passage from the Apostle Peter regarding the importance of staying alert to what is going on around us.  It’s an important warning for us as we seek to live our daily lives for Christ and avoid evil. 

Anytime we are out somewhere with our daughters and are crossing a street, my wife and I will constantly remind them, “Look both ways before you cross!”  Often this is not the case and they start sprinting to the car or across the road in excitement to get somewhere and we have to remind them that it’s not safe to just cross the road.  This is something we have to teach kids over and over again because it’s easy for them to forget.  As adults, we also don’t always remember to look when we cross the road. 

Why is crossing the road so dangerous if you’re not looking?  Because who knows what vehicle is out of our sight before we cross?  There can be bushes, trees, vehicles or other things blocking our vision of what’s coming.  It’s important as we teach our kids to stop and look both ways in order to avoid a terrible tragic event.  We don’t want to get hit and we don’t want our kids or others to get hit either. 

Just as crossing the road is dangerous without looking, also living our daily lives without being on the alert is very dangerous as well.  Why would we attempt living each day without being on the lookout for the sly, sneaky, and deceiving enemy?  If we don’t remain alert to what’s going on around us, he will easily slip in and pull us away.  When we get pulled away and lose control, bad things happen.  We’re not to live our lives each day being paranoid of what the enemy might do, but we must remain alert and know that he is sneaky and deceiving in so many ways and we need to constantly be aware.

We can become better self-controlled and alert by reading His Word, praying and being more aware of our surroundings.  The enemy attacks when we least expect him to, so we certainly need to be aware and on the alert at all times.