Day 5

WEEK 1:  THE IMPORTANCE OF PRAYER

THE DEVIL IS REAL

SCRIPTURE

1 Peter 5:5-9 (NIV) ⁵  Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."⁶  Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.⁷  Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.⁸  Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

OBSERVATION

Peter warns us that the devil is real and always looking to destroy us. We cannot defeat him on our own we need God’s help and we must utilize the proper weapons of warfare to defeat him. Weapons such as the Word of God and prayer. We must practice with those weapons in order to wield them properly which means we must develop proper disciplines.

UNDERSTANDINGI remember the first time I went to the shooting range with a friend. He handed me the gun and explained what I needed to do and then he told me to point it at the target and squeeze the trigger. I fired off a few shots and they hit the target. I was so excited that I spun around with the gun and started yelling at my friend to about how I had hit the target. The moment I spun around everyone in the gun range dropped to the ground and started yelling at me. What I didn’t realize was that I had to put the gun down before turning around. Crazy putting that much power in the hands of a novice, yet that is exactly what God does. He gives us great power at our disposal to defeat and destroy the works of the devil but we must do the hard work of learning how to use those weapons well.Peter says be self-controlled and alert. The word self-controlled or sober means we are to have self-control regarding intoxication but also carried the understanding of disciplining our mind and body so as to be able to wield our weapons well. In other words we must be disciplined to practice with our weapons.Even as we are practicing and growing comfortable with our weapons we must be always watchful for the sneaky attack of the enemy. It is very rarely a full frontal assault but he tries to sneak in to our lives and worm his way in. We must be watchful, using God’s truth to discern his lies.Resist him! How? When we see his lies we must have the courage to do something about it – to make the changes necessary so that he does not gain a foothold. LIFE APPLICATIONGod has given us His Word and prayer as weapon to destroy the work of the devil. (Ephesians 6) We must take time to practice praying and we must learn how to properly read and glean the truths of God’s word. The discipline of practicing with these weapons will serve us well when the enemy attacks. Paul in Ephesians 6:18-19 tells us to pray. Pray! Pray on all occasions. And when we have read the word of God we are able to pray according to will and truth of God.

• Ephesians 6:18 (MSG) ¹⁸  In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

Let us be sober and self-controlled regarding prayer and God’s Word so that we can resist the devil. Satan has no control over the man or woman of God who has practiced wielding prayer and God’s Word.