Read
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8
Reflect
During the Gulf War, the United States for the first time started using in combat a new technology designed to shoot down enemy missiles before they hit their targets. The Patriot missile was unproven, but it started having some early effectiveness. Unfortunately, people started relying too much on them too quickly.
One day, an Iraqi Scud missile was launched toward an American base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and the air-raid sirens sounded just as they should. On the base, one barracks was full of soldiers who were enjoying their dinner – and that’s precisely what the missile struck. Scuds weren’t known for their accuracy, and the Patriot was becoming known for its effectiveness. Yet on this day, the Scud hit a valuable target and the Patriot failed to do its job. Twenty-eight soldiers were killed and another 99 were wounded.
What led to this terrible loss of life? A failure in the Patriot’s system was largely to blame, but complacency also played a role. In the past, an air-raid siren would have sent personnel into bomb shelters, but because of the Scud’s poor track record and the Patriot’s increasingly good record, most people stayed where they were. A false sense of security, in part, contributed to a terrible tragedy.
We can be that way at times, too. We know we need to protect ourselves from the world, the flesh and the devil, but those things aren’t always on the attack, so we tend to let our guard down. But when the guard is lowered, that’s when the enemy tends to strike.
- Complacency about the world can cause the believer to wander away from the Lord and to slowly begin to look and act just like non-believers.
- Complacency about the flesh can cause us to seek self-pleasure rather than to seek to please the Lord.
- Complacency about the devil leads us to forget that we are always in the midst of a spiritual battle.
It’s easier than you think to become complacent and to let your guard down. Enjoy your life, yes, but also make sure to stay on alert and to leave no opening for the enemy. When life’s air-raid sirens sound to alert you to the enemy’s approach, retreat back into the safety of the Father. Stay close to Him, knowing that He is the only consistent refuge we can trust.
Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt and Charles Fulton.
