Be serious! Be alert! Your adversary the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. Resist him and be firm in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.   1 Peter 5:8 HCSB

There has been a number of incidents in our neighborhood over the past 2-3 weeks.  Last week, my nephew’s wife heard someone at their back door in the wee hours of the morning rattling the door knob at their back door.  She turned lights on which is when the rattling stopped, woke my nephew who went outside, but by that time he didn’t see anyone. They filed a police report, but of course have no idea who this was or what their intent was.  They live near us and my nephew’s wife called me yesterday and was asking about how to get a Neighborhood Watch going in our area.  She said that they checked with several neighbors who have cameras just to see if their cameras picked up anyone and found that they too had had similar experiences.  These things all seem to be going on late at night.  There were just two occasions where people were actually awake in the home and were able to take some sort of action which scared the people away.

I’ve been on the other side of the door with a stranger trying to come through it in the wee hours of the morning. It’s not a good feeling, I can tell you that.  As Christians, we live this way every day.  The only difference is that it’s not a stranger.  It’s the devil himself.  Now, he may be using a loved one or a stranger to accomplish his tasks for him, but he is at the root of it.  So, we must first figure out who and what we are up against and take the necessary precautions.

I explained to my niece that Neighborhood Watch sounded good in theory, but if these things are happening between 1:00a.m. and 4:00a.m., who is really going to be watching anything at that hour.  The only thing I want to be seeing at that hour is the back of my eyelids and maybe whatever is rolling through my dreams at the moment.

There are  many steps that we can take to keep ourselves safe such as fences, alarms, cameras, weapons for defense, dogs that bark to alert us of an intruder, these things can help.  My niece asked me if I was ever frightened at night since my husband works nights half the time. I told her no, I have everything in place to keep me safe.  I have cameras to catch anyone messing around outside.  I have an alarm system that will alert the police should an intruder try to come in.  My dogs probably would not bother to bark if they were not disturbed, but I do have weapons for self defense.

The problem with Neighborhood Watch and the reason I think it isn’t used so much anymore is that most neighbors are so busy trying to protect their own property that they have little time or inclination to protect someone else’s property.  The other big difference is that while Neighborhood Watch may be effective in a subdivision, out here in the country the houses are farther apart and often separated by trees and it’s not so easy to see what’s going on at your neighbors.

The whole concept of Neighborhood Watch is simply for neighbors to watch out for their neighbors and their property and to report suspicious activity.  I’ve noticed more and more, however, that we live in a world where many of us are so busy doing what we do that we don’t even know who our neighbors are.

As Christians, we need to be sure of two things.  We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit to be safe against the devil’s attack.  We need to have a conscience that sounds an alarm when Satan is trying to destroy our faith or our witness.  To do this, read Ephesians 6:10-18. God gives us weapons to protect against spiritual warfare and we need to be sure that we use these weapons each and every day.

Once we have done all we can do to be sure that we are safe and protected, we need to watch out for those around us.  We need to watch out for our fellow Christians.  Most importantly, we need to make sure that our friends and our neighbors understand that they too have this spiritual armor provided for them.  They can be safe in God’s protection.

If you see your neighbor being physically attacked in their front yard, I would hope that you would at least call 911 and try to assist them. I hope that you would do the same for anyone who is under attack from the devil.

Watching our neighborhoods doesn’t only mean watching out for those that may be doing Satan’s bidding by trying to break into our homes, but it also means that we try to help those that have come under satanic attack and are being oppressed by the devil.

I leave you with two questions today, are you doing all you can do to keep yourself and your family safe from the devil? Are you doing all you can to let those around you know that they too can be safe through prayer and Bible study and staying in close relationship with God?

If we are secure, then we should try to help those around us be secure as well.

Have a great day!