This is a vital New Testament verse for me. Sobriety first, but resisting the devil is KEY. He is a coward. When you face him down, he will flee. Plus the promise comes true: suffering (“a little while,”) restoration, confirmation, strength and establishment. To all: the devil is prowling, be watchful.

1 Peter 5:8-10

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

Bible Gateway link: 1 Peter 5:8-10

I once gave up, or tried to give up gossip for lent. I was stung by how often I found myself gossiping. I also noticed how demoralized it made me feel, “down into the inner parts of the body.” God helps me stay away from gossip. He also helps me to pass on this universal wisdom.

 

The words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels; 

they go down into the inner parts of the body.

Proverbs 26:22 - Bible Gateway link

There is so much talk. Talk, talk, talk. Does anyone actually do anything? Jesus says the word and it is done. He heals us. He saves us. We rejoice at “all the glorious things that were done by him.”

 Luke 13:10-17 - Gospel lesson 10-25

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”

And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.

Luke 13:10-17

 This is a tesst