Stand: He is Faithful and Able to Cause us to Stand

To stand in Scripture is the opposite of lethargy, laziness and sleep.  It calls us to a watchful position, to be fully awake and aware.  Like a soldier who must be hyper vigilant to keep his watch - being keenly alert for the enemy - so too the believer.   Our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  We cannot afford to let our guards down.  Even flies will venture to land on a sleeping lion.  Sampson let his guard down as his head sleepily rested on Delilah’s lap – it ended up costing him his eyesight, his life and worse still his life’s God ordained work as well as his witness.  Not to put words in his mouth, but I would venture he would tell us “Not worth it”.  The same with King David and Bathsheba.  There is always a price to be paid when we let our guards down.  The Christian can fall from a high position into such scandalous practices that those around them are left wondering if there was ever really any life of grace in them at all.  God tells us to “Stand” for a reason.  And by our faith, we can stand firm. 

In case you didn’t already know it – Christians are in a spiritual warfare yet God has given us everything we need to stand firm in all the will of God mature and fully assured.  We have the belt of Truth around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness in place, feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith (with which we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one), the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, and we have prayer.  We must keep alert and pray for ourselves and for all the saints.  We must take heed that we do not indulge in laziness rather we are to stir ourselves up to action and stand.