Spiritual Warfare

"Be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour."  I Peter 5:8

Spiritual warfare.  Is it something that you think about often?  I would say that the Church in America as a whole doesn't really think about it all that much and the results are devastating.  Here's why I think they are devastating:  the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour; it seems like so many are being devoured and not living victoriously over the devil.  Have you ever seen a lion stalk it's prey on Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel?  It's serious business.  They will spend much time stalking their prey, waiting for just the right moment to attack and if the attacked animal is somehow not able to get away the lion will fight with it for as long as it takes to bring it down.  They are relentless and they go for the weak spots on the animal right away.  Sound familiar?

The devil is exactly the same way.  He prowls around stalking his prey, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.  When he strikes, he too, will not give up.  He wants to see his prey go down and he will go directly for the weak spots.  He wants to destroy us.  He wants to see us living in failure, defeat, and sin.  He takes pleasure in seeing us not live in the spiritual victory that Christ won for us on the cross.

Thankfully though Peter gives us two things to do in regards to the devil seeking his prey.  The first thing that he says to do is to be sober-minded.  What does this mean?  Well, I think that the most basic answer to give is that we take this seriously.  That we understand that this battle is real, that we have an adversary, and that he wants to destroy us.  If we do not take it seriously that doesn't mean that the devil won't.  Do you think a lion would let a prey go because it caught it frolicking about the field?  No, I don't think so either.  I think that it would enjoy it's easy prey.  The devil too will not simply let you go because you got caught "frolicking around" in the field; not paying attention; uncncerned that the enemy was approaching.  I think that he would enjoy his prey.

The second thing that Peter tells us to do is made possible only if we are doing the first.  He tells us to be watchful, but if we are not sober-minded or serious about the devil seeking us we will not be watchful.  It's kind of like if you're not serious about other cars on the street while your driving you're not going to be watching out for them.  We need to be careful; we need to keep our senses alert and watching out for the devil to strike.  There are opportune times for a lion to strike at it's prey just like there are opportune times for the devil to strike at us.  I think that it is important for each one of us to know our weakness and to know when we are the most targetable prey; so that the devil is not able to come and grab us by the jugular so to speak and bring us down.

This spiritual warfare is a real thing and it is important that all of us Christian recognize it to be such.  It's not just something that happens to some people.  No, the devil wants to devour us all and he will contnue to until we join in the battle and become sober-minded and watchful.