February 25
Spiritual Casualties
“Now the Holy Spirit tells us clearly that in the last times some will turn away from what we believe; they will follow lying spirits and teachings that come from demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1)
It is clear that we are living in the last days. All around us, we see signs being fulfilled before our very eyes that Jesus and the prophets told us to look for. The Bible warns that in the last days things would go from bad to worse (see 2 Timothy 3:1–13). The Scripture also warns that one of the signs of the last days will be a falling away from the faith, or an apostasy.
The question is, could you or I ever become one of those spiritual casualties? Could you or I ever fall away from the Lord? Without question, the potential, even the inclination, to sin is clearly within us. I have the potential to fall. You have it as well.
This is why we must give careful attention to the potential pitfalls that Scripture describes. We must be aware of certain things as we are living in the last days. As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13, “The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So don’t live in darkness. Get rid of your evil deeds. Shed them like dirty clothes. Clothe yourselves with the armor of right living, as those who live in the light” (verse 12).
This is not a time to be playing games with God and living in half-hearted commitment to Him. The only way to survive as a Christian and even flourish in these last days is to be completely committed to Jesus Christ. Otherwise, we will be easy targets for the tactics, strategies, and flaming arrows of the devil.
Copyright © 2003 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.