The Seat Belt Alarm

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

Have you ever driven a car without wearing your seatbelt? Hopefully you were only driving a few feet and moving at very slow speeds. But either way, you probably discovered the seat belt alert feature in the car. Mine flashes a red light on the dashboard rapidly and makes a pretty loud ding sound. It starts for a bit, pauses so I don't get too used to the noise that I tune it out, and then it does it again. It repeats this cycle until I either put my seat belt on or stop the car.

Usually I think it is obnoxious because I know for the short time I'm driving (in those cases), nothing bad is likely to happen. But really, it's there for my safety. (And probably because it's the law, but the whole concept of seat belts came for safety.) If I ignore that warning, I'm putting myself at risk.

Now, imagine I had an adversary who was just looking to get me in a wreck and give me the most injuries possible. He would take almost any opportunity he could find to crash into my car. If I knew this, I'd probably wear the seatbelt even for those ten feet to move the car in the parking lot, because wearing it just might save me a good deal of injury.

In the verse above, Jesus tells us that we do have an adversary in the spiritual realm who is out to devour us. Another verse says he is out to "steal, kill and destroy" (John 10:10). The armor of God protects us from harm when this adversary (Satan) comes against us. One of the things Holy Spirit does is bring conviction whenever we're moving away from God and thus taking off armor.

But what if we treat that like the seat belt alarm and just ignore it? Maybe we think "I'll be fine today, I'll make up for it tomorrow". That's perfect opportunity for our adversary to strike. Instead, we need to listen to every conviction from Holy Spirit so that we won't be caught without our full armor on.

Ignoring even minor convictions from Holy Spirit is like ignoring the seat belt warning in your car when you know someone is out to get you in a wreck.

*Father God, thank you for sending Holy Spirit to us. Thank you that He is your presence living within us and that there is nowhere we can go without Him. Please help us to recognize the convictions He gives us and not dismiss them like a seat belt alarm. We want to stand firm in your armor always, not compromising or making ourselves vulnerable. In Jesus’ name, amen!

Contributed by Lincoln W.
Blessings Daily Devotional - WB Journal