1 Peter 5:8-9 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world."
In Part one of this blog we see how ferocious and calculating the lion is and understand more fully Peter's comparison of the lion to our adversary, our enemy, the devil. We will start this blog with the last line of the first...
EVEN NOW - he's stalking us.
The enemy is a lion, roaring, looking for and stalking whom he may devour. Male lions will even eat the young of their own pride to establish their dominance. It does not matter that they are related. If they are hungry and there is a little kitten around....one bite and no more kitten.
Of course it would be best to never allow ourselves to be caught! We must remember that we have an enemy who wants to steal, kill, destroy, us, our lives, and our relationships, especially with the Lord! He is quietly and invisibly stalking us. He is always looking for a way to maneuver us into a position where we find ourselves alone
where he can leap out of nowhere and maul us. Hopefully this spiritual imagery will keep us "on our toes"!
So what do we do? How d we defend ourselves from him who seeks those whom he can devour? Devour - swallow up, utterly destroy!
We must not allow the enemy to separate us from the body of Christ, or even our church families! This is one of his favorite and most successful tactics. We really have to be on the alert for this because he can work so subtly. He doesn't care what he has to use against us to make us fell like we need to "go it alone," he cares that when we strike out on our own we become extremely vulnerable and defenseless . He will use any means he can! Anger, hurt feelings, wounds from our past, offense, jealousy, feelings of not fitting in or that we don't matter, not knowing what He has called us to, not in perfect doctrinal agreement with anyone, fear pride, fear of being corrected, not wanting people to know all our stuff, idolatry, busy-ness, illness, money, are all ways he uses to cut us from the herd and the list goes on and on!
We do not have to be so vulnerable! The protection of the flock is available, Our place and our protection are found in worshipping and fellowshipping with the people of God in "the house of Gid, which is the church of the living god, the pillar and ground of the truth" (1Timothy 3:15) I know people can be hard to deal with, but we are made to love and He will teach us to allow His love to flow in us and through us! He commands us to love one another and He will show us how to do that!
The enemy so wants to separate us from the rest of the flock...no wonder Jesus is always worried about that one sheep, so much he will leave the 99 to go looking for it!
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