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A Roaring Lion

March 16th, 2009 by Jeremy Sprouse

One warm afternoon, after a morning climbing through the mountains hunting deer, my dad and I decided to rest for a while on the side of a mountain. Hearing a snap, I opened my eyes to see a mountain lion about 15 feet away. I pointed my gun at the lion while my dad threw rocks at it. With us awake and active, it only took the lion a few moments to come to the conclusion we were not worth the risk. We don’t know what that mountain lion intended, but if we had not woken up that day might have ended horribly. As Christians, we have a lion that is seeking to devour us: “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NASU). Satan is not an easily intimidated mountain lion, however, he is on the prowl and roaring.
A lion’s roar is fearsome. The human ear can hear a lion roaring over five miles away. The male lion’s roar is a display of confidence and boldness used to scare off competitors. When we think of Satan it can be scary and make us anxious. Our solution, however, is to submit our lives to God. By humbling ourselves before God and casting our anxieties on Him we put ourselves into God’s care—and He is more than able to save us from Satan (1 Peter 5:6-7). Humbling ourselves before God means obeying His wisdom even when we do not consider it important or useful. Even though God’s word commands us to meet together, many think they are strong, strong enough to be faithful without going to church, but they are wrong. Lions prefer to attack animals that are separated from the rest of the group. When we go our own way we are weak and susceptible to attack. It is only by completely submitting to God’s will that we resist Satan (cf. James 4:7).
A lion roars to claim ownership of his territory. Satan is the ruler of this world (cf. John 16:11, Ephesians 6:12). We are in his territory and need to be sober and alert. Christians cannot afford to be lax concerning their spiritual lives. Satan is not looking to wound or scare us; he is looking to devour us. Christians who cease to care about meeting with the saints, studying God’s word, praying, and singing songs of praise and edification usually find themselves consumed by the world. They may still deceive themselves into thinking they are Christians or they may abandon God altogether wondering why they ever bothered in the first place. Either way Satan’s objective has then been accomplished—they have been separated from God’s people and devoured.
We need to realize we have an adversary trying to bring us down. We can fight back by humbling ourselves before God, being alert to worldly desires in our lives, and examining our actions as Christians. If we fall asleep in these areas, we will be quickly devoured.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 16th, 2009 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Bulletin Articles.

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