The Devil on a Diet
It has been a couple weeks since my last entry. No I wasn’t on a holiday 0r retreated back to sabbitical mode – although there were a couple of times that I thought that might be a good idea. The last couple of weeks have been incredibly busy as I returned to my regular routine at Lakeside. With the “catching up” pretty much done, I am ready to return to posting my blog on a regular basis. I want to share about things that I am reading, things that I am pondering and thinking about and passages from the Bible that are on my mind.
If there have been a couple verses that has been on my mind the last few days they would be 1 Peter 5:8-9 which says, “Be alert and self controlled. Your enemy the devil prowl around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sister throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.” This comes on the heals of one of those huge verses of comfort which says, “Casting all your cares on him, because he cares for you.” I look around and watch and witness the many ways that the evil one is devouring people in our culture. Influencing the choices they make. Influencing what their priorities are. Influencing how they live their lives. That influence is not a positive one. I wish this was only true for those who have no relationship with Jesus but that is just not the case. Many followers of Jesus these days seem to be caught up by the same influences.
But the specific context of this passage is that the evil one wants to devour those who are in the middle of their suffering. He wants to convince them to blame God for their suffering and to bail on Him. Like Job’s wife he wants them to “curse God and die”. I continue to watch followers of Jesus walk away from faith because of the extreme suffering they are neck deep in.
The advice from Peter would be pretty simple – be alert and self controlled – know that this is the scheme of the enemy and be on guard against it. He would then encourage those in the middle of difficult and dark days to stand firm in their and stand together with others. Easier said than done.
It seems these days that the evil one has become a glutton when it comes to the number of people he is bent on devouring. It is time for followers of Jesus to put him on a diet. It happens when we become aware of his influences on our lives – both the blatant and the subtle ones. But we have to been on the outlook for them. It happens when we are willing to follow Jesus and trust him no matter what. It happens when we stand together and walk with each other through our troubling days. Yesterday we witnessed a testimony at Lakeside of a young couple who are putting him on a diet. No matter what is happening in their life – they are choosing to stand firm in their faith.