Stand Well

1 Peter 5:8-9 - Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

Building off of last week’s post, The Sandstorm, I want to continue this short series on spiritual warfare with another modern day setting and some practical ways to be victorious in Christ.

When a military base is under attack, what do the military personnel do? They assume their positions and prepare to defend themselves from the oncoming attack. Do the commanding officers make decisions in frantic thoughtlessness or do they assess the situation calmly knowing they are under fire? They have to remain focused and understand where the attack is coming from, what they are being attacked with, the strength of the enemy, and how to respond whether that is sheltering in place, securing, calling for reinforcements, and so on.

Does the commanding officer know by sheer instinct how to respond and who to call? Does the military force know exactly where to get into position and which weapons to take up by guesswork? Or have they all been trained in protection strategies under these conditions? They will have no doubt been trained so that they are always ready. They are wise. They are prepared.

The enemy will offensively launch an attack when they believe it’s an opportune time to strike. Their plans are not without research. They will have assessed the base, the number of people there, which guards are distracted, and when the defenses might go down. The offensive attacker has surprise on their side, so they will gather as much intel as possible and then surprise the one that they intend to attack.

Similarly, in spiritual warfare we can be caught off guard and then feel like we are on our back foot. The enemy’s offensive attack will almost certainly catch us by surprise and then we could be scrambling to reactivate the missile defense systems, sound the alarm to wake up the troops, and then find ourselves internally running around wondering how this happened and what to do. But if we are honest with ourselves, we know that the enemy is looking for an opportune time to entrap us and subdue us in sin. Do we not see this in Luke 4:14 where it says “and when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time”?

So what is our strategy to overcome? How can we be wise as serpents (Matthew 10:16)? In times of peace, strategies should be developed so that when the day of war comes again, we know how to respond. We can develop our prayer rule, have pre-selected Scriptures to read, selected encouraging works from the church fathers, hymns to sing, organize a night vigil, lean on godly people in our lives, and much more.

We must be watchful in our walk of faith because we know that the enemy wishes to thwart God’s plan for our lives and the sphere of Christlike influence we could have in the lives of others. We don’t have to be caught off guard by temptations, trials, or spiritual attacks. We don’t have to wait to be surprised. We can prepare our strategy of Scriptures, prayers, songs, and support network so that we stand firm and resist the devil. We can go up the chain of command and pray to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because He has Himself had every temptation and attack thrown at Him and still He was victorious over sin and death.

Let us stand firm. Let us stand well.