Lions Don’t Like Fast Food
1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith.”
Have you ever watched a documentary about lions in the wild? If so, you’ve probably learned already that they don’t like fast food. They have to hunt for their dinner, and it’s not really advantageous when hunting to spend all the time and energy chasing fast and healthy wildebeest, so they often look for weakness.
They prey upon an old wildebeest, or a slow one, or an inexperienced young one, or one that is crippled. Why not go for the easy target? Besides that, they nearly always attempt to take their victim by surprise, and they often hunt in packs. The element of surprise gives the enemy the advantage.
THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE
Likewise, Satan doesn’t just pop into your room, emerging from a puff of smoke in a red suit with horns on his head and a pitchfork in hand, and kindly ask you if you don’t mind if he destroys your life and takes you to hell with him someday. You would probably tell him to get lost. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:14, “No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.”
He wants to appear as the good guy. Jesus said, “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature; for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44
PERPETRATOR OF LIES
The Bible describes the enemy not only as a prowling lion and the father of lies, but also as a tempter and an accuser. Occasionally he appears on the scene like he did when tempting Eve in the Garden of Eden, or when Jesus was in the wilderness, fasting for forty days just prior to the beginning of His public ministry. Yet, the general portrayal of him is as an unseen perpetrator of lies as well as an invisible instigator of spiritual trouble.
In Ephesians 6:11 we read, “Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”
The apostle Paul wrote about a general awareness in the church of the enemy’s tactics in 2 Corinthians 2:11, “…so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.” That verse describes the alertness of the church back then, but doesn’t mean it describes the state of the church today.
IGNORANT OF HIS SCHEMES?
Many Christian youth seem to be ignorant of his schemes, especially concerning his intense propaganda campaign found in media. So many have embraced nearly every form of entertainment without restraint or wisdom or discernment. Simply recognizing his arsenal is a good start for waging spiritual war.
