The Roaring Lion

 Greetings to  you all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,

     First  Peter 5:8-9 says, “ Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” 

     “Take two chocolate chip cookies and call me in the morning.”  That was the advice of a child dressed in a doctor’s costume advertising cookies.  It was a mock advertisement that was similar to the advice of taking two aspirin and call me in the morning.  Both are  probably equally examples of poor advice for most comments about an ailment.  

     Sometimes, final words are empty in their advice.  We often say, “Have a good day.” as if that is going to guarantee having a pleasant day after departing a conversation with a friend.  Quite often, the epistles end with a list of things that the writer wishes to say that are extremely important.  Verses five through eleven have at least nine different things that we are told to do at the end of Peter’s first epistle.  The above passage is just one of those instructions where we are to be sober and vigilant due to the fact that Satan is indeed alive and well and roaming the earth looking for easy prey.  His description is that of a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  That is not a pretty picture, but is a good description of the adversary that we face.  Satan is not omnipresent, so can’t be everywhere at the same time, but he does have thousands of demons at his command that are going about doing his nasty work and they are appearing, not as ugly creatures, but as something more beautiful, but their plans are evil.  Indeed, we are to resist these creatures by being stedfast  in the faith.  Our faith has the guarantee of the empty tomb as Christ was victorious over death and the grave.   Even at my age, temptations still arise and that old statement, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn’t” still applies.  In order to combat this enemy, we need to have on the armor of God as we see in Ephesians six.  We need to know the basis of our faith  and we need to stay in the Word of God and it must govern our lives in every matter, not just one or two things.  The Word of God is good for our lives in showing us the will of God in regard to  our family life, our personal life, our business life, our educational life and most of all, our church life.  Our acceptance of sin as now a proper way to live is leading us down a path of destruction and person after person, soul after soul is being consumed by the “roaring lion,” the prince of darkness himself.  The average view of the American in regard to the Scripture is that it might “contain” the word of God instead of declaring “It IS the Word of God.  Praise God today that our faith is based on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the tomb!