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PROGRAM D-7661
One of our ever-present challenges as Christians is to recognize and avoid the traps set for us by the enemy of our soul, the devil. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that we have such an enemy, and he is not a comical figure with a red suit and a pitchfork! He is a power to be reckoned with, but the good news is that
“the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
In 1 Peter 5:8 and 9 we are given one description of how this enemy works. Peter writes:
“Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith. . .”
A roaring lion is one who is on the prowl, looking for something to eat, something to conquer. Lions almost always prowl around under cover of darkness because then their prey has less ability to withstand their attack.
Our enemy is like this roaring lion, and he uses darkness as a cover, too. I have come to understand that literally the dark hours are when I’m most susceptible to the roar of the enemy. Perhaps the devil uses the cover of darkness on me because that is when I am tired and weary, and darkness typically causes and accentuates fear. For whatever reasons, the dark hours of the night can find me lying in bed imagining the worse, dreading some supposed disaster, ready to give up, and very frightened. It sounds like a roaring lion in my ears.
Now, the good news is that I’ve learned to recognize this roar, and frankly the devil doesn’t use this method against me nearly as much as he used to, because I am fairly quick now to resist him when he roars at me in the dark. You see, he really is a toothless lion, one who can roar all he pleases, but if we resist him and stand firm in our faith, he is defeated. A roar can’t kill you! It’s just noise.
I want to encourage you today to pray for strength to resist the enemy in your life. He will come roaring at your weakest moments, and he wants to defeat you with a roar. Look for that roaring lion in your darkest hours, your weakest moments; expect him to come after you then, but don’t be fooled by his empty roars.