'Battle field' Mentality

 1 Peter 5:8-9 warns christians that the devil is roaring around looking for his prey. Peter is very straight forward in telling the brothers in faith to be SELF-CONTROL and ALERT of the enemy's scheme. Why does he tell us to do so, as if we were in the battle field? the ugly fact is YES, we are in the battle field.

If you haven't yet realized, Peter addressed God's elect as 'strangers in the world' who is God's elect? Isn't he whom God has redeemed to be His own, who believes in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ? It is you and me! The moment we decided to follow Jesus, we entered a fierce battle field with the devil, but fear not, coz we are on the winning side, by the blood of Christ.

So then, we are all God's warriors in war against satans, and this world, which we are in, is his territory! We are in enemy's territory! That's why Peter warns us to be ALERT and SELF-CONTROL. How do we conquered the enemies in his territory? First of all, we need to remember that we don't belong here; yes we are Christ ambassadors, we belong in Heaven [Phi 3:20]. We need to diligently exercise self-control and awareness because our fleshes were once slaves of the enemy, by means of sins. Our flesh, attached to our body, is the weakest part of us, and hence, the best target of devil to attack. And since we are in his territory, we are exposed to temptations... We have to be able to control our flesh's desire, so we do not to give in to the devil, that's a loser!. To make it clearer, we NEED to control our flesh, not the other way around. 

And satans are shrewd enough to tempt where we are the weakest. Therefore, we need to be ALERT of his schemes, even more when it comes to our weaknesses. Know what's happening, don't just go with the flow and don't forget your mission in this world, lest you will fall in no time. (if you do fail, God will pick you up if you know your wrong and turn back to Him, but He wants you to grow stronger&not keep falling at the same point) How do we do this? Be aware of what's happening around us, and what we want to do and always check if or not it pleases God. Make it simple, does it please God to do this? If not, be careful you might put yourself onto a danger, like a butterfly going onto the spider web, know what i mean? =)

Of course it's not easy to resist the devil because he never plays fair, he'll do whatever it takes to win! It makes sense if he'll attack whenever he sees 90% rate of success, doesn't it? Yes, he's not stupid~~
Peter told us to stand firm in the faith! Remember you're not alone, go to your ACCOUNTABLE brothers to fight together. Keep your eyes upon Christ, the Victory,  and pray for one another; and in doing so, you'll shine brighter together. The devil will withdraw because darkness cannot exist together with the light, either one has to fade.