The Enemy’s Out There
1 Peter 5:8 Control yourselves and be careful! The devil is your enemy, and he goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to attack and eat.
So life seems to be chugging along fine, and then one day, you wake up … and things aren’t quite right. Or, worse still, things have completely fallen in a heap. Sometimes it’s some big cataclysmic upheaval in your life.
They seem to come along a few times in everybody’s lifetime. And other times, most times in fact, it’s an accumulation of little things that leads to a nagging sense of inadequacy, or unhappiness, or worry, or this sense that life just isn’t what you want it to be.
But the truth is, it didn’t just happen. We live in a world of cause and effect. Most times, things don’t just go wrong. We, through our action or inaction, nudge them on their way.
Keep eating all those sweet foods day after day, and eventually you pack on the weight. Ignore your wife or your husband – a little bit more each day – and eventually, your marriage falls apart.
But we just bumble through life without really thinking too much about it and in doing so, we’re letting our guard down. Now, there’s one person who absolutely loves it when you let your guard down.
Control yourselves and be careful! The devil is your enemy, and he goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to attack and eat. (1 Peter 5:8)
Now there’s a great bit of wisdom and spiritual insight from God. Control yourself and be careful. In other words, get a grip on your life. Don’t just let it drift along. Don’t be an unwitting accomplice to your own destruction. Because your enemy, the devil, is prowling around looking for someone to devour. And like any roaring lion, he is going to attack the one whom he perceives to be the weakest animal in the herd, and if that’s you, then you’ll do.
What you think and say and do today, tomorrow and the next day, to a very great extent, is going to nudge you down one path or the other. And when you present as the weakling of the herd, make no mistake about it, that roaring lion is going to attack.
So, control yourself, be alert, be careful. Be deliberate about your prayer time. Make sure that you’re a man or woman who feasts on God’s Word daily. Because that devil is just waiting to attack you.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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