Facing evil

“Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”   1 Peter 5:8

How would we live differently if we recognized the unseen spiritual war happening in and around us? What Scriptural strategies can we develop to wage war against these enemies? Rick Warren says the three enemies are self, the devil and the world system which are always active and on the offensive. There was a time before September 11, 2001, when counterterrorist agencies possessed good intelligence about groups. We knew who their leader of AlQuida was and where he was, we knew whertheir training facilities were, how monitor them, and we knew their hatred. Yet, with so many otpriority issues, international and domestic crises, and we had a lack of “actionable intelligence.” We didn’t assign enough attention to this character Osama bin Laden and his terrorist network. Without taking action, we suffered tragic consequences. Hindsight is 20/20 but having foresight takes wisdom and action. When all you have is fuzzy foresight, you must focus more attention and resources on the Enemy who wants your head on a platter. If you do, your hindsight will be much less painful.

We believed the terrorists were out there, but we acted like we sort of believed in Intel. Sort of believing in a real enemy and real threat produces a sort-of response that sort of gets people killed.

Satan wants you killed or at least neutralized (living but not a threat). The most tragic mistake we can make is to sort of believe in evil. Do we sort of believe we have an enemy?

We  can spend too much time focusing on evil or not consider the threat at all.