Stay Alert!

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. (Galatians 5:1)

Satan has one goal for Christians – he can’t steal your salvation, so his plan then is to steal as much as possible from your life. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Galatians 5:22-23 gives us a whole list of what the Holy Spirit brings when we seek God’s abundant life: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

This list is a shopping list for Satan of what he seeks to “steal, kill and destroy” if we allow him to. Imagine you just bought a house and found out there was a criminal running loose in your neighborhood. What would you do? I imagine you would take steps to make sure your property is safe from this person by keeping things secure and possibly installing some security cameras. Well, we just read there is a criminal loose in your spiritual neighborhood who wants to take the precious belongings given to you by the Holy Spirit so we should also take steps to keep them safe!

Be on the lookout for something to happen today to try to steal your joy, threaten your peace, test your patience, etc.

Being prepared is half the battle, as we often feel ambushed when the day takes a turn from where we thought things were headed and we are “surprised” things aren’t going well, and we lose our joy, give up our peace and lose our patience.