Be on the alert

“Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” (1 Cor. 16:13; NASB)

It was a simple task.  Two bushes.  One set of hedge clippers.  One hour.  No problem.

I dove into the job with vigor.  I really do enjoy trimming bushes and trees — I enjoy seeing the speedy progress, and it enables me to take something apart (the fun part for me) without having to put it back together (the tedious part for me).

Halfway around the first bush I noticed a couple of yellow jackets flying nearby.  “Hmm.  I wonder where they came from?”  So I looked, and spied a nest under the eave a good distance away.  “I better keep my eye on that nest,” I thought as I resumed clipping.  It wasn’t 15 seconds later when I felt needles being driven into my left arm.  I glanced down and seeing a blaze of yellow, flung away my clippers, waved my arms, and yelled in pain.  Yellow jackets.  This called for war.

So I found a can of high power wasp and hornet spray, returned to the scene of the incident, and looked more carefully.  As I peered through the bush, I finally spied the danger — a nest with at least a dozen yellow jackets.  In seconds they had been ushered into yellow jacket eternity.

Quickly I finished that bush and turned to the second.   “Be on the alert,” I thought.  With my arm still throbbing, I carefully pulled back the limbs on the bush.  No visible nest.  So I tentatively gave the bush a few shakes.  Nothing.  Some more violent shaking and a number of looks all the way around and through the bush.  Empty.  Good.

This time I made it three-quarters of the way around before I got stung on the same arm.  Again, hidden in the recesses of the bush, another nest, whose occupants were moments away from joining their friends.

It was a painful lesson.  “Be on the alert.”  You would think that after one attack, I would have been attentive enough to scout out all the dangers.  Call it lack of wisdom, lack of training, inattentiveness or foolish bravery, I had fallen asleep.

As painful as my encounter with God’s creation was, it was nothing in comparison to the sting of the evil one when we fail to pay attention to his schemes and wiles (1 Pt. 5:8).

How do we practice this spiritual alertness?  Here are two simple things.  Pray.

“With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints…” (Eph. 6:18).

This was also the instruction of our Savior in the Garden with the disciples (Mk. 14:38).  Prayer is an antidote to our spiritual weakness.

And be firm in the faith (1 Cor. 16:13).  God has provided the footing and foundation for solid living (Mt. 7:24ff).  Stay in Him.  Be firm on His truth.  Stand on His faithful character.  Be faithful to Him.  Don’t let anything sway you from your attention to God.

Being alert means more than being awake:  it is to be attentive to areas of danger and trouble.