Are You Guided By The Roar Of The Lion?

April, 2007

Are You Guided by the Roar of the Lion?

I Peter 5:8-11

INTRODUCTION: Satan gets to all of us from time to time through his roar tactics. Christians are not exempt from his search and often they allow him to guide their lives by his powerful roar. Does this sound familiar? Are you allowing yourself to be guided by the roar of the lion?

Probably you have not thought about it before. Just how does he guide us and devour us? Some of the ways he roars at us are very familiar--for example, we make decisions based on emotion--FEAR is followed up by an irrational decision. When we PANIC we make hasty wrong decisions. Another is when the lion roars and we become DEPRESSED. We make another irrational decision based on how we FEEL when we are down. He roars and we are scared. Or how many times do we react to the roar of CRITICISM and make a hasty decision to QUIT or to RETALIATE? When we fall for his roar, we mess up. Peter calls Satan “our enemy, the devil,” and likens him to a lion in search of prey.

Peter may have remembered his own experience when Satan tried to “sift” him when he had failed to be watchful (Luke 22:31). He relayed this to the struggling Christians at that time, and it still applies to us today.

We, too, must realize the tricks of the devil and not be guided into wrong decisions because of his intimidation. We can defeat the enemy by learning to not respond to his roar. How can we do this?

I Peter 5:8 gives us FOUR ways. Let’s look at this verse again. It points out four things to do:

1. Be self controlled (NIV) sober (KJV) keep a cool head (Message)

2. Alert vigilant stay alert

3. Resist resist keep your guard up

4. Stand firm steadfast firm grip on

The Message Bible says: “Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The devil is poised to pounce and would like nothing better than to catch you napping. Keep your guard up. You’re not the only ones plunged into these hard times. It’s the same with Christians all over the world. So keep a firm grip on the faith.”

Let’s talk about these four things that we can put into practice in order to keep from being guided by the devil’s roar.

1. Be Self-Controlled: Scripture says to be self-controlled and choose not to react to the tricks of the devil. We must learn to recognize his tactics when we are gripped by fear, worry, tempted to panic, feel depressed, or want to run away. When these emotions come our way, it should signal a “red flag” going up where we say, “I don’t care how I FEEL, I’m going to do what is right. When we are gripped with these negative emotions, it is often good to delay making a decision until we can make a more rational one after we have calmed down and are thinking more clearly. For example if you are extremely angry or upset about something, you can’t make a good decision.

Many times you hear people saying, “I was just out of control. I just couldn’t control my drinking or my eating or my spending. May rage was just out of control.” Many people have thoughts that just become out of control--depression or worry, for example, that leads them to the brink of self destruction.

What are some ways you can bring control back to your life once the devil has gotten to you?

Scripture tells us we have weapons against Satan’s destructive tactics.

II Corinthians 10:4, 5 says, “for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exhalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Paul was telling the Corinthians that they have tools for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. We are instructed to take authority over the tactics of the devil rather than to allow him to run roughshod over our lives.

How do you do this?

It is a good idea to think about ways we would handle a situation based on the roar of the lion before it happens. What would you do if…” What is my plan of action? For example if you don’t have any control over:

Chocolate cake

Cigarettes

Alcohol

Gambling

Depression

Overspending

What would you do?

Get the chocolate cake out of the house

Get the cigarettes out of your pocket

Don’t go to a bar where you will be tempted

Schedule other plans on gambling night

Don’t hang around with people who drag you down