September 16,2014 "The Cowardly lion"

1 Peter 5:8

Be self-controlled and on alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

When I was younger, I read this verse and thought of "the great and mighty lion" prowling for its prey....but as I have gotten older, I've looked deeper...behind "the lion".

Lions typically will forgoe the strongest animal when there is a more "surer" kill...a weak, injured or hurting prey. They search with calculating moves to seek out those that have been seperated from the pack...taking them away from the only protection that they might have had.....

I have seen in my life that Satan acts this way in our lives. When I am down, sick, feeling lonely or in seemingly despair, this is when I feel most vulnerable to his attacks....his lies...his twists on the truth. When I am strong, I have the energy and confidence to tell him to step aside, yet, when I am weak in flesh....my resistence is low.

I will never forget....we were at the lake one day fishing. Trav and I were arguing about something and I let my emotions get the best of me and decided that I'd show him and go off on my own. I found a place in the cliffs where I could sit on a towel and my feet would touch the bottom of a ravine (a chair of sorts...yes, a "short chair"). As I stood in the ravine positioning the blanket with my mind racing through the "fight" between Travis still playing in my mind, I heard the warning rattle of a snake...looking down quickly, I had a large rattle snake by my feet. A snake who wasn't there when I had first checked the area, who moved in as my mind was distracted, whose intent at that moment was to hurt me....and being that we were in Pontiac, Mo deep in the lake area...I would be in trouble. I jumped out of the ravine screaming for Travis....running to him for safety (like the snake was really chasing me:))

But that afternoon, I realized the parallel....the isolation, the assumption that all is well, the distraction, the deadliness that waiting.

I know when we are hurting the worst, we tend to want to isolate ourselves, because of embarrassment, sadness, hurt feelings....pride. And in our weakness, satan begins his attack in earnest. Picking at us, hurting us when we are the most defenseless.

And, dear ones, we need to be reminded that he doesn't come to use as a lion or serpant but in any manner thay we might be most deceived....be careful. When you are most weak, when you struggling and the darkness is closing in....

Run to God. Run to those who you know are Christ-like......