The devil’s always been out to steal, kill, and destroy. And because we have free will and the ability to choose sin, he does a pretty good job at it. But God’s offered us another way, an abundant life, when we yield our will to His and walk in obedience to Him.

When Jesus was alive on earth, the Pharisees believed that obeying the law was the way to God, so they read the Scriptures religiously. Yet for all of their studying, they still didn’t believe that He was the Christ, the Messiah. But when we “do our homework” to learn what the Bible has to say and compare how His life matches up with prophecy after prophecy made centuries before His birth, we can clearly see that He’s the Son of God who came to save us for eternity.

The devil doesn’t need to attack those who are trapped in their own sin, because they’re already right where he wants them. But his greatest fear is that we’ll equip ourselves with spiritual armor and trust in God as we fight the battle against evil. So the question is: are we living in such faithfulness and obedience to the Lord that our lives are a threat to hell?

The Bible has a lot to say about submitting to authority in different parts of our lives, including marriage, our relationship with our parents, elders, governing leaders, and more. But the ultimate authority we’re called to submit to is that of our Heavenly Father. God wants to direct us to the things that are best for us, but in order for Him to lead us, we’ve got to be willing to follow and obey.

We all come from different backgrounds: some of us had idyllic families growing up, and some of us, not so much. But here’s the good news: we’ve all been adopted as children of God, and no matter what kind of earthly father each of us has, we’ve got a Heavenly Father Who’s promised to always love us and call us His own. When we’re adopted into His family, there’s no undoing that — so let’s live in such a way that other people see Him when they look at us!

As followers of Christ, we’re all part of the family of God — and that means we need to root ourselves in the “family gathering” of a church! As God’s children, we need spiritual family members to help guide us so one day we can help guide other people. And when we’re rooted deep in the soil of a healthy church, we’re better able to bear healthy fruit that benefits God and others.

When it comes to listening to what God tells us to do, the Bible describes Jesus as a shepherd and His followers as sheep. Even though He promises to come after the sheep that stray, He wants us to listen to His voice and obey Him from the beginning. Life on earth is short — are we going to waste our time in disobedience, or trust His direction from this point on?

Today’s culture teaches us that it’s fine to believe whatever we want to believe, and that every religion is equal because they all lead to God. But Jesus tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” There’s only one path to eternal life with God, despite what other religions say, and that path is through salvation by way of His only Son, Jesus.

Sometimes we bring suffering upon ourselves, but other times, suffering just seems to happen to us and we wonder why God allows it. The answer is: because He wants to grow us and strengthen us in our relationship with Him. He’s promised to meet all of our needs, and He’s always been faithful to that promise — so when suffering comes our way, let’s respond by pressing into Him and trusting His care for us.

Scripture tells us that we’re meant to be light in a very dark world. Yet too often we find ourselves hiding the light that God put in us, afraid to let it shine. When we follow Christ into the light and find fellowship with other believers, we have the ability to together “contaminate” the world of darkness in a good way — with the light that will lead people to Jesus!