Oct 31, 2025 Heads-Up Christians – Words of Grace Blog – October 31, 2025
Christians should live in a heads-up frame of mind.
“Be sober minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8, ESV).
The man who wrote these words shows us how he did it in Acts 6. The word of God was bearing fruit, the kingdom of Christ was advancing, and the Holy Spirit was drawing more men and women into the growing church when a complaint arose among the Christians in Jerusalem. The problem was some of the widows were being overlooked and not getting the support they needed.
Peter and the other apostles acted with a heads-up mindset. They saw in the complaint a combination of the need to do something to make sure the widows in the church are cared for and the scheme of the devil to take advantage of the situation to create discontentment and disunity among believers and to distract them from preaching and teaching the word of God. They were watchful for anything that may take them away from their calling to prayer and the ministry of the word. The steps they took to address the situation provided for the widows, maintained their focus on the word of God, and thwarted the attempt of the devil to do harm in the church. That’s heads-up living.
Heads-up living is not panic or paranoia, it’s watchfulness. It is not attributing evil intent to everyone. It is heeding the warning of the Bible to beware of the evil one. Watchfulness means being able to detect the spiritual nature of events that on the surface seem like mere human interactions and conflicts. When we are watchful, we are prayerful. And the steps we take to deal with situations include the will and ways of God to advance his agenda in our lives, families, churches, and the world.
I wonder if we are heads-up Christians. When thoughts of conflict and complaints run through our minds, are we aware of how our adversary can be behind them, using our desires to influence our thinking? When actual conflict arises in our relationships, can we see the invisible party standing among us egging it on? When we take stock of our lives and realize we are off track in some way, do we acknowledge our lack of watchfulness and resist the devil who tempts us away from Christ?
Let’s avoid the imbalance of attributing every word and deed to the devil or forgetting that he is active in human interaction, of obsessing over spiritually dark influences or ignoring them as if they don’t exist. Let’s instead be watchful and discerning and wise to act accordingly. Let’s be heads-up Christians.
Read Acts 6:1-7 this weekend and pray for Grace Community Church to press on toward the spiritual health the Holy Spirit desires for us.
-Scott