Keep Your Guard Up

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our reading titled, Keep Your Guard Up, was written by Marvin Williams. A man and several friends went through a ski resort gate, hosted with avalanche warning signs, and started snowboarding. On the second trip down, someone shouted, Avalanche! But the man couldn't escape and perished in the cascading snow. Some criticized him, calling him a novice. But he wasn't. He was an avalanche certified backcountry guide. One researcher said that skiers and snowboarders with the most avalanche training are more likely to give into faulty reasoning.

The snowboarder died because he was lulled into letting his guard down. In the book of Deuteronomy, as Israel prepared to go into the Promised Land, God wanted his people to keep their guard up, to be careful and alert. So he commanded them to obey all his decrees and laws, and remember his past judgment on those who disobeyed. They needed to be careful, to examine themselves and keep watch over their inner lives. This would help them keep their guard up against spiritual dangers from without and spiritual apathy from within.

It's easy for us to let our guard down and fall into apathy and self-deception, but God can give us strength to avoid falling in life and forgiveness by His grace when we do. By following Him and resting in His wisdom and provision, we can keep our guard up and make good decisions. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 1 through 9. Now Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them, so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor, the Lord your God, destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today. See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the Lord my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it. Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, Surely, this great nation is a wise and understanding people. What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to Him? And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today? Only be careful and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live.

Teach them to your children and to their children after them. Let's pray. Dear God, throughout scripture you remind us to remain alert and aware of the things that lure us away from you. Please help us to follow you faithfully and to avoid the things that can hinder our walk with you. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.