Tag Archives: roaring lion

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – Ready to Pounce

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Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. —1 Peter 5:8

A number of years ago I read an interesting book called Death in the Long Grass. Its author, a big-game hunter, recounts stories of not only hunting lions, but also of lions hunting people.

There was a certain group of lions that had a taste for human blood and would come into camps at night, step over people without even waking them, and find their intended prey. It was never determined why the lions chose whom they chose. But they would pick up their victims, kill them immediately, and drag them away without waking a single person. The author wrote about one large cat in particular that killed over one hundred people. The book also mentions that a charging lion can cover one hundred yards in just three seconds.

Lions are powerful and very frightening creatures. And they have the capability to take you out rapidly if they want to.

The Bible likens the Devil to a lion. First Peter 5:8 tells us, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”

And in Genesis, God gave this warning to Cain: “But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master” (4:7). God was saying, “Listen, you are flirting with disaster. You had better throw on the brakes, because sin is like a wild beast, and it is ready to pounce.” The Devil is always looking for trouble, pacing back and forth like a lion in his cage.

Sin was crouching at Cain’s door, and it is crouching at our door too. And for some, it is already across the threshold. So we must be careful.

Our Daily Bread

Our Daily Bread — Defeated Adversary

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Our Daily Bread

Ephesians 6:10-18

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. —1 Peter 5:8

The roaring lion is the legendary “king of the jungle.” But the only lions many of us see are the lethargic felines that reside in zoos. Their days are filled with lots of rest, and their dinner is served to them without the lions having to lift a single paw.

In their natural habitat, however, lions aren’t always living a laid-back life. Their hunger tells them to go hunting, and in doing so they seek the young, weak, sick, or injured. Crouching in tall grasses, they slowly creep forward. Then with a sudden pounce, they clamp their jaws to the body of their victim.

Peter used “a roaring lion” as a metaphor for Satan. He is a confident predator, looking for easy prey to devour (1 Peter 5:8). In dealing with this adversary, God’s children must be vigilant at putting “on the whole armor of God” and thus they can “be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10-11).

The good news is that Satan is a defeated adversary. While he is a powerful foe, those who are protected by salvation, prayer, and the Word of God need not be paralyzed in fear at this roaring lion. We are “kept by the power of God” (1 Peter 1:5). James 4:7 assures us: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” —Cindy Hess Kasper

Lord, we know that our enemy seeks to devour us.

Please protect us from him. We believe Your

Word that He who is in us is greater than he

who is in the world.

No evil can penetrate the armor of God.

Bible in a year: Ezekiel 5-7; Hebrews 12

Insight

The church at Ephesus, to whom the letter of Ephesians was written, was begun by the apostle Paul after he visited the city (Acts 18:18-21). Paul’s work there was followed by that of Apollos (vv.24-26), a man who had great passion but an incomplete understanding of the way of Christ. This prompted two of Paul’s colleagues, Aquila and Priscilla (v.26), to take Apollos under their wing and mentor him. This collaboration in ministry reveals how the work of the early church, so often focused on Paul’s work, was a true team effort.

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The Reality of Godly Living – Greg Laurie

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Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour —1 Peter 5:8

The Christian life is the greatest life there is. God takes a life that was empty and aimless and headed to a certain judgment, and He turns it around and transforms it. He removes all of our sin. That is more than enough right there, but then He puts the righteousness of Jesus Christ into our spiritual bank account. That is called justification. He removes the guilt that haunted us, fills the emptiness inside of us, and literally takes residence in our hearts. This all comes as a result of the gospel, believed and followed. That is the good news.

The bad news is there are some new problems that come along with all of that. You get rid of an old set of problems and inherit new ones. As the great Bible commentator Ray Stedman said, “A Christian is one who is completely fearless, continually cheerful, and constantly in trouble.”

Once you become a Christian, you have a very aggressive adversary that has set his crosshairs on you. That adversary is the devil, Satan, and he wants to undermine you. He wants to bring you down. The Bible warns that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Timothy 3:12). That word “persecuted” means to be hunted, to be harassed.

So we need to be aware of that and not be surprised when we discover that the Christian life is not a playground; it is a battleground. I think a lot of people believe in a watered-down gospel, and thus they have a watered-down faith that, in reality, isn’t faith at all. They have heard so many sermonettes, they have turned into Christianettes.

If you live a godly life, the reality is that persecution will follow.