day no. 16,356: woe to those who walk around unarmed

"And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house." - 2 Samuel 11:2

“They are well kept whom God keeps, but woe unto those who go forth into the world, or even dare to walk their own house unarmed. Those who think themselves secure are more exposed to danger than any others. The armour-bearer of Sin is Self-confidence... David should have been engaged in fighting the Lord's battles, instead of which he tarried at Jerusalem, and gave himself up to luxurious repose, for he arose from his bed at eventide. Idleness and luxury are the devil's jackals, and find him abundant prey. In stagnant waters noxious creatures swarm, and neglected soil soon yields a dense tangle of weeds and briars.” — Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening

Woe to those who walk around unarmed.

Rest assured, where corruption calls the shots, cocksuredness calls shotgun. Self-confidence is the armor-bearer of sin. It attends to it and assists it in its campaign. Cocksuredness caddies for corruption, carrying its clubs and offering it counsel. Vain confidence leads to brackish. It leaves waters to rot. It converts living fluid into stagnant poison by bottling it up and keeping it on the shelf. A man with his jersey hanging in the rafters is no longer engaged in the contest. When he hangs it up, he hangs it all and proves an easy target for the kind of creatures found in fetid waters.

Woes pounce upon those in repose.

You cannot take a break from fighting sin without being broken by it. Sin doesn't call off the dogs when you call it quits.

Watch is the word.

Stand guard.

But don't keep your head on a swivel out of fear. The reason you fight is to protect what you have, not to prove that you have it. We keep watch over the city we inhabit, not in order to inhabit it. We suit up and battle for the salvation we possess, not in order to obtain it. Do not fight out of fear. Do not lose sleep over sin in the shadows out of concern for losing the light. The battle is proof of God's promises. If there were no salvation, there would be no warfare. The enmity would be exhausted. But since a seed of Eve has prevailed over the seed of the serpent, enmity is perpetual until His return. 

Until then, woe to those who oppose His saints. The gates of Hell will not prevail and the faithful will be justified in their fisticuffs.