The lightning never strikes twice but the devil will (try)

It was a good run at the 5th Singapore-Johor Second Link Bridge Run. I clocked a personal best of 44min 34.25secs for the 10km route. The weather was good, and the race was not too crowded.

Yet, only one hour earlier, the 4 of us on the way to this run could have been involved in a road accident, twice over.

First, when I was taking a bend at the Pan-Island Expressway near Toa Payoh, I almost lost control of the car though the car was travelling at 80-90kph. I felt it and instinctively uttered a quick prayer, and was able to muster control of the car. I thank God for saving us from what would have been a terrible accident if we had crashed into the centre divider. And as if God was speaking to us, I saw a series of signs after that spot which say "Scene of Fatal Accident". A timely reminder to drive safely, and I kept the speed to about 80kph throughout the highway.

Then, as we were in a circus near the race venue and exiting from the circus, a car entering into the circus drove straight into our path. I stepped on the brakes and amazingly, our car stopped inches away from hitting that car in the driver's seat. The other driver drove off as if nothing happened, but I am sure he would have been badly hurt if our car had ploughed into his. Thank God for stepping in to save us once again.

The lightning may never strike the same spot twice (or so, I was told when I was a kid), but the devil will try to strike us more than once if he has his way (think of Job of the Old Testament). Unfortunately for the devil, God has given us a full armour, in our battle with the devil.

Ephesians 6

¹¹Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. ¹²For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

The lesson in this is:

Never lower our guards in the on-going spiritual warfare against the devil. We need to pray, we need to commit our plans to God, and above all, we need to be watchful and not allow the enemy any opportunity to thwart us. Let's not take things for granted.

May God bless you.

Category: Sounding Board, cf_