THE APOSTLE PAUL bluntly warned the Ephesian Christians that life in the world could be a heavy battle…

The enemy of one’s spirit, he said, is not always visible.  Rather, he is often invisible, fighting from ambushes which appear at first glance to be attractive and beneficial.  Paul’s advice: be prepared, alert, and equipped to stand firm.  To the Corinthians he said that we should never be ignorant of the enemy’s designs.  Peter agreed in his epistle, and he described the enemy as one who is like a roaring lion, “seeking whom he may devour.”  These men weren’t kidding around.  Theirs was no paranoiac fantasy.  They were well aware that spiritual survival demands a dramatic effort.

The effective father also takes this kind of thing seriously, and he trains his eye to discriminate between those things that will build and those that will destroy his children’s lives.  He begins to notice repetitive hostile patterns in various areas of life which demand acute, sensitive awareness, lest from among the good things the destructive elements emerge that erode and tear at his children’s spirits.

A spiritual mine detector might register a few things capable of exploding in a family’s face.  Gordon MacDonald, “It’s Not A Phony War,” The Effective Father, 32-33

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  1 Peter 5:8

Mike Benson