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 Thoughts on a Monday  

It can sometimes be hard to put our phones down. In fact, chances are, you are probably reading this on your phone right now! A few weeks ago, my daughter and I were on a trip home from Baton Rouge. We followed the Mississippi River levee all the way home, and I somehow convinced her to put her phone down and simply look out the window. She was amazed at the amount of wildlife that she saw. There were alligators in the bayous, pelicans behind the locks catching fish, and just swarms and swarms of black birds everywhere! I told her that it is amazing what we might see if we would just take our heads out of our phones for a minute!  

You may think that this is a new problem, but it really isn’t. I can remember, as a kid, being so caught up in what was happening on the back of the cereal box every time I had breakfast! I remember people sitting in the coffee shops, completely ignoring each other, staring at a newspaper. We have always been very adept at finding ways to distract ourselves, sometimes to a fault!  

The devil is very good at what he does. 1 Peter 5:8 says, Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. How do you think he is able to accomplish this? The lion attacks from a point of advantage, usually when the prey has no idea that it is even there. That is where the distractions come in. We get so caught up in what is happening on social media or the next big news article, that we can be oblivious to life happening around us.  

Peter goes on to say, in verse 9: Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. The only way that we could possibly know what is going on throughout the world is to get away from the distractions and pay attention. If you have taken a type of look around, at all, you would see that Peter’s words are as true today as they ever were. Folks are hurting. That crafty old devil is ruining peoples lives and, according to the apostle Peter, it is up to us to take a stand! STANDING FIRM IN THE FAITH!  

Our faith is the only thing that will truly get us through. Not the next Instagram story or some article that we need to retweet, but our faith! The apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 to take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. This calls for us to be alert and aware of where those arrows are coming from!  

I pray that you see the adversary for who he truly is, and that you pay no mind to his distractions and misleading nature!  

Have a great week!  

-Jason