He's Seeking Someone to Devour

1 Peter 5:8-11 ESV

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

As followers of Jesus Christ we are to be serious-minded Christians who walk in the fear of the Lord, and who take God and his word seriously, and who believe not only his promises but also his warnings, and who believe the conditions he sets for those promises to be fulfilled, too, and so we act accordingly in agreement with the Word of God and not against it.

We are also to be watchful people who exercise much spiritual discernment, and who test the spirits to see whether or not they are of God. And we need to test them against the teachings of the Scriptures in context. For many false teachers are teaching the Scriptures out of context and they are making them say what they want them to say to gratify the flesh.

For we have an enemy who is out to destroy us any which way that he can. And so he is going to come against us in many different ways by lying to us and by trying to instill fear in our hearts and minds, and by playing tricks on us to try to get us to lose faith and to doubt God and his word, or to think we are in danger when we are not truly in danger, etc.

So, we are to resist him, and we are to put the Word of God in practice in our daily lives, and this will be one form of resisting him. But when he lies to us we need to discern those lies and fight back with the truth. We need to get out that sword of the Spirit and use it against his lies and not let him get the best of us, for he wants to bring us down. He wants us to give up.

So, we need to remain steadfast in our faith. And actually, God allows the devil to do what he does or it wouldn’t happen. And he allows trials and tribulations to come into our lives, and he sets limits on them, like he did with Job. But God allows suffering and persecutions in our lives to make us strong so that we will fight off the lies of the enemy and so that we will pursue righteousness and holiness and godly living, and so we will walk in obedience to our Lord and not in sin. 

And after we have gone through whatever suffering God allows in our lives, for his purposes, and for our good, then he strengthens us, and he restores us, and he grows and matures us in our walks of faith. For we need that opposition so that we will be drawn to Christ and to obedience to our Lord and so that we will not take God’s love and grace for granted, and so that we will not get lazy and not walk as we ought to walk by faith in Him. So suffering serves a good purpose in our lives, even though it is painful.

[Matt 5:10-12; Matt 10:16-25; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 6:22-23; Lu 21:12-19; Jn 15:1-21; Jn 16:33; Jn 17:14; Ac 14:22; Rom 5:3-5; Phil 3:7-11; 1 Pet 1:6-7; 1 Pet 4:12-17; 2 Tim 3:12; 1 Thess 3:1-5; Jas 1:2-4; 2 Co 1:3-11; Heb 12:3-12; 1 Jn 3:13; Rev 6:9-11; Rev 7:9-17; Rev 11:1-3; Rev 12:17; Rev 13:1-18; Rev 14:1-13]

Video Talk

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Pray, Pray, Pray  

An Original Work / September 6, 2012

Based off Various Scriptures

Pray that eyes may enlightened be,

So they may know Christ.

Pray that they may Him better know,

Strengthened by His pow’r. 

Pray that they may grasp 

How wide and long

And high and deep

Is Christ’s love.

Pray that they may be filled

To the fullness of God’s love.

Pray with thanksgiving.

Pray for an open door for me,

So I may share Christ.

Pray when the gospel is proclaimed –

Shared with clarity.

Pray words are given me so

I declare the gospel fearlessly.

I pray for you to be active

Sharing your faith, too.

Pray continually.

We oft not know for what to pray,

So we ask for help.

The Spirit intercedes for us – 

Words cannot express.

Just keep on praying for the saints

With all kinds of requests to God.

Pray they may have faith to 

Please their God in ev’ry way.

Pray with joyfulness. 

https://vimeo.com/119259373