“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8
While I was reading through the book of Luke and reading the Charles Spurgeon commentary, I noticed how Spurgeon was focusing on the fact that the devil will attack us when we feel weak or vulnerable. The revival I was attending this week also had similar comments. I was then reading the modern-day version of Pilgrim’s Progress, and Christian had to fright the prince of the world rather unexpectedly. The Bible tells us to be sober-minded and alert for attacks.
The Lord is kind to give me analogies that I can see, connect the comparison to the spiritual meaning, thus cementing the concept in a concrete way, and record it to be mindful of hereafter. The analogous scenario follows: My husband got home from working all night. I was sleeping in because it was the weekend. An hour and a half after he tucked into the covers he scrambled out of the covers and stood at the end of the bed saying, “It bit me!”. Groggy and confused but ready to help identify the culprit, I ripped the covers off the bed to find a furious, buzzing Yellow Jacket prowling on the sheet. My husband was stung by a bee, in our bed, under our covers.
We had many questions like how did the bee get in our room and under the covers? How long had it been in there? I wondered what if he was allergic to bee stings. Once we were both awake, we talked over this bizarre event. He said he felt it moving on his back the nano seconds before it stung him.
Like the warnings I’d heard this week, the devil will strike when we are vulnerable or weak. How much more vulnerable can one been than when asleep. Like my husband felt the Yellow Jacket on the move before the painful sting, Children of God can sense the movements of the devil before he strikes. I believe I’ll check the covers before snuggling in in the future. I’ll have a mind alert to the threat. We can be alert and aware of the threats of the devil as well.
In The Pilgrim’s Progress, Christian, the protagonist, had just descended into the valley of humiliation. He met “the destroyer” unexpectedly. The beast talked with crafty words and evil intent, but Christian was grounded in the truth of the Bible and strengthened and encouraged by the people who educated him about the character of their lord and the history of his noteworthy works and walked him safely down the previous hill. Christian knew the Lord he had sworn allegiance to. He was compelled by the sight of the cross and how his life changed at the foot of it. Although Christian didn’t expect to meet that beast so soon, he was ready because he was alert, and he knew the promises and character of his God.
Spurgeon’s commentary says, “The devil will come to us at a good opportunity…He will frequently come and find an occasion against the children of God when we are sick and ill. He knows we would not mind him when we are in good health; but sometimes when we are down in the dumps through sickness and pain, he begins to tempt us to despair. He does the same when we are poor.”
My friends, we have an enemy of our souls, if we are children of God. The enemy is ruthless, guileful, wicked, and hateful. This enemy wants nothing more than to rip us away from the only One that can love us completely to hurt God and to hurt us. The enemy jeers and sneers when the object of God’s affection is torn away from Him by filthy lies.
We should rejoice and stand strong. The Bible says if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. As Jesus resisted the pointed temptations while hungering in the wilderness, we have that same power and that same call. We have the power of God Himself abiding in us. We’ve been given a way out of every temptation. The Word of God is life and light. That’s exciting. That’s worth talking about!
“When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” Luke 4:13
