1 Peter 2:11-12 “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.”
If I value the eternal over the temporal, refuse to yield to my sinful desires, and communicate truth even when it is costly to do so – I will be considered strange and alien to everyone who defines success in terms of self-preservation and self-promotion. But if I choose the path of least resistance and adopt the world’s values, I open the gates to an Enemy whose objective is my destruction. Yielding to sinful desires is to war against my own soul. In contrast, an alien (a human being who no longer values what the world values and is willing to be different, transformed by Christ) is protected by God’s armor (Ephesians 6:10-18).
Father, keep me from giving in to any distraction, any desire, any temptation – anything – that wars against my soul. Please guard my heart and equip me with the courage to live as an alien and stranger in this world. Thank you that I am not alone; you have surrounded me with many fellow aliens who follow Jesus Christ along with me.