THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood. 29 I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; 30 and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31 Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears.
Acts 20:28-31
BE ALERT
In this passage, Paul’s farewell address shifts from what Paul has accomplished to what he’s calling the Ephesian elders to do! An easy Bible reading tip to identify what the author is saying is we look for repetitions! We see in verse 28 and in verse 31 there is a repetition of a theme of alertness! The text says be pay careful attention or be on guard and then it says in verse 31 for us to be alert.
Paul is calling the Ephesians elders to is to wake up and be aware of the dangers of the spiritual battle that exists in the church and all around us! In fact, he warns the edlers that there are those ferocious wolves that are coming to destroy the church and destroy believers. Ultimately, what Paul is getting at here is that we are in a spiritual battle. Specifically, that sin and evil are real realities and there is a battle raging for our souls.
As a result, it is our job as followers of Jesus to pay careful attention and to be alert. We need to have our eyes open that we need to be prepared for battle! It’s this idea of a wartime mentality. We are not just looking for luxuries and comfort but in fact we are picking a fight with evil and sin.
The challenge of this text is to pick a fight with the sin in your own life to to begin to wage war against those things that are killing your soul. Let us heed the words of Paul: may we pay attention and may we be alert!
Reflection
What would a war-time mentality look like for you?
Prayer
Our Father,
We thank you for your word. We pray that by the power of Your Spirit that Acts chapter 20 verses 28 through 31 would change us into the likeness of Christ. Lord, I pray that Your Spirit would wake us up to the realities of evil and sin father that we would pay careful attention that we would be alert. Lord, that we would begin the process of picking a fight with our sin,that we would wage war against the things that are killing our souls, God, I pray for protection over our church family from false teaching and from these ferocious wolves, that would seek to destroy our church and seek to destroy our faith. We declare our need for you again today. We pray this now in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
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