Your adversary

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. – 1 Peter 5.8-11

Nobody really likes to talk about the devil. He seems kind of passé and old fashioned. He seems to fit better in the middle ages than in the high-tech age. Surely that red skinned guy with the pointy tail and horns and pitchfork is not really something to worry about. 

Well, that’s right. That guy is nothing to worry about. 

But the devil, the real devil, is something to worry about. He is real and he is active. He walks about like a roaring lion seeing to find out who he can destroy and devour. He is real and he active and he wants to hinder us all that he can to make us weak and powerless in our service for God. 

That devil is the one we need to be afraid of. 

At points in history people have known about the devil. 

But the world has outgrown Satan. And sadly, too much of the church has outgrown him as well. 

But the devil is still there, lurking and roaming about looking for us in our moments of weakness. We ignore him at our own peril.

James too gave us a warning – resist the devil and he will flee from you. He has no power. We have nothing to fear when we resist him in the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Be sober. Be aware. Be vigilant. Don’t get caught off guard. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world.