"Okay," I smiled. "Goodnight."
I watched this little four-year-old gently place his head down on the rug and close his eyes. Well, one of his eyes.
"I always sleep with one eye open, just in case," he informed me. You never know, after all, what icky boogie monsters might pop up during the night.
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"'Be careful,' Jesus said to them. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees'" (Matthew 16:6).
"Then He said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in all abundance of possessions'" (Luke 12:15).
"Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position" (2 Peter 3:17).
Unlike the boogie monster, the enemy of our souls is real. He has a name--Satan. But he is much more discrete than we often realize. He shows up under a myriad of different titles and thwarts our Father's truth.
We are inherently sinful, wretched beings. Satan caters to our fleshly desires. His ways are, at least initially, more appealing than the ways of our Father. But the more we draw near to God, the more like Him we become, and thus the better we can see our enemy's deceit.
The Bible is absolutely clear that we are to watch out for Satan and his tactics. We are to fight against him and never, ever give room to his ideas. Just like the little boy who slept with one eye open, we are to be on our guard against the plans of the enemy. When he attempts to steal our thoughts and take us captive, we are to thrust him out in Jesus' Name. When he causes pain in our lives or hurts someone else, we are to cling to our God and know that He is good. At no time should we cave to the feelings of hopelessness, despair, self-pity, jealousy, or false pride. Rather, at all times we should know that there is a God who makes us new and desires to be our Everything.
Satan is so frighteningly more than a boogie monster. He is conniving. He is enticing. He appeals to our flesh and makes us want more. It is a very real battle, this one that we are in. (We are, by the way, in it regardless of what we feel and see. Satan is at work and takes advantage of our ignorance and delay to get involved.) We are called to fight. To take up our crosses and die daily to self, that Christ might be glorified in the process. We serve Him. We cannot serve two masters. Either we follow Him in the way everlasting, or we perish and spend eternity with evil.
The God of all creation desires our obedience. "Jesus replied, 'Anyone who loves Me will obey My teaching. My Father will love them, and We will come to them and make Our home with them. Anyone who does not love Me will not obey My teaching. These words you hear are not My own; they belong to the Father who send Me'" (John 14:23-24). He is not a slave master. "We love because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). He loved us to death, and because of His sacrifice we are able to love. Because of His sacrifice, we should love Him. And because of our love for Him, we should obey.
Be on your guard against the god of this world. Keep one eye open at all times, and allow no evil into God's temple. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). He has to flee from you, when you command him in Jesus' Name.
