Be Alert

The devil is our fiercest and most abominable enemy. He is a traitor of God, and the father of lies and deceptions. Satan's desire is to unarm, destroy, and oppress us so that we are ineffective to be used by God and a poor testimony of God's great love, power, and grace.

The Bible compares Satan to a roaring lion, prowling around looking for someone to devour.

"Be self-controlled and alert.

Your enemy the devil

prowls around like a roaring lion

looking for someone to devour."

1 Peter 5:8

Therefore, God warns us to be alert at all times because Satan is real and active. His motives are evil.

The Bible says that Satan will tempt us, just like he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. The devil will put thoughts into your head to allure you into his trap and to do what God would have you not do.

"Then the devil took Him up and revealed to Him

all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

'I will give You the glory of these kindgoms and authority over them,' the devil said,

'because they are mine to give to anyone I please.

I will give it all to You if You will worship me.'"

Luke 4:5-7

I once knew a woman who loved God for many, many years — ever since she was a young girl. This woman was an inspiration to me to know, love, and serve God.

However, near the end of her life, she found out that her husband had a sexual encounter with another woman during the course of their life-long marriage. And she couldn't forgive. Anger and hatred built up in her heart. She began to spew out horrid words of degradation and malice towards her husband. The days turned into months, until after over a year, her hatrad had not lessened. I pleaded with her to stop. I begged. I cried. I prayed. Nothing changed. I saw before my eyes the deterioration of a man who was once strong, happy, and full of life.

I will never forget the desperate sad look in his eyes when one day he turned to me and said (not audibly, for it was his eyes that spoke volumes), "Help me."

I tried and tried. I honestly did. But my efforts were unsuccessful. I prayed and prayed, all to no avail. Finally, I told the woman that her husband would soon die if she didn't stop it. Of course, I did not know this, but God did. The words just came out of my mouth one day, shocking me, but not her.

She immediately responded, "I wouldn't be so lucky."

Out of overwhelming grief, I bowed my heard and prayed silently, "God take him."

And that is what happened.

Not long afterwards, her husband had to go to the hospital to have minor surgery and stay overnight. However, he never came home. He fell that night after the surgery when he got up to go to the bathroom. He unmindfully pulled his catheter out, fainted from pain, and bled seven and a half pints of blood on the bathroom floor.

The man was left considerably brain-damaged and spent his last few years in a nursing home.

Believe or not, the man was happy and finally at peace. He couldn't no longer remember the abuse, the hatred, and the unforgiveness from his wife. I know because I would ask every time I visited him, "Are you happy?" And every time he would in his childlike state say, "Yes," and smile at me.

It breaks my heart to tell this story because a woman who once knew and loved God listened to the words of Satan as he deceptively whispered in her ears. She fell into his trap of unforgiveness and is not ready to one day meet her once-beloved Saviour.

I still pray for her and will continue to do so. Lamentably, she has also turned her unforgiveness and bitterness towards me.

Be alert people. Don't let down your guard until you finally reach Heaven because Satan will continue to fight for your soul to the very end.