My Bible Study Reflection for Friday, April 30, 2021
1 Peter 5:8–9 (ESV) Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
Peter makes clear that Satan himself stands behind the suffering that Peter’s readers faced. That’s why he exhorts them to be sober-minded and watchful. They nor we should be naive regarding how Satan seeks to destroy us. As others have said, there are two errors we make in regards to Satan. One error thinks about him too little, as if he was not active at all. The opposite error thinks about him too much. God calls believers to be grounded in their thinking, informed about who Satan is, and how he works. We are to be like Paul who said, “we are not unaware of his schemes.”
So Peter provides a short briefing on how to be ready. “Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” You have an adversary. He in no way possesses power equal with God, but he possesses plenty of resources to outwit you in your own strength. Don’t be naive. Furthermore, he relentlessly prowls looking for a weakness, looking for a way to destroy, or if not destroy, to discourage or distract. How many professing believers, including me at many times, has Satan simply distracted. Is this not what Jesus refers to in the parable of the sower:
Mark 4:18–19 (ESV) And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
So what do we do? We resist him, firm in faith. We actively resist Satan through active trust in God. As Paul says in Ephesians 6:16 (ESV)16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.
Then Peter makes clear that he has the suffering they face in mind as to how Satan seeks to devour them. Though it’s clear from Paul’s writing that there are multiple ways that Satan works to harm believers, Peter ties their suffering to Satan’s work. He calls them and believers of all time to feel a connection to believers in other parts of the world who are suffering. That awareness works to help us know we are not alone in the difficulties we face. It also helps us to not overreact to the opposition we sense in this country at this time, when we know believers in other places and other times have and face greater dangers.
From this passage the Holy Spirit calls me to apply the truth:
God calls me to keep my difficulties in perspective. I can indulge in self-pity like a champ if I’m not vigilant to resist that particular tool of Satan. One of my good friends would tell me years ago, if I had slid into a self-pitying rant, “Gene, what you need is a real problem.” God calls me to think clearly and to remain vigilant without becoming paranoid or looking for a demon behind every bush, so to speak. God calls me to respond with firm trust in him to whatever efforts Satan makes against me and those within my care.
In response, this is my prayer of commitment for today.
Father, you know that I’ve just been listening to stories that tempt me to worry, regarding ongoing pressure and marginalization and ridicule of the Christian faith. I ask that I may think sober-minded. May I be neither panicked nor cavalier about these threats. Show me how to live today with firm trust in you.
Doxology ( a concluding act of praise to God):
Psalm 40:1-2 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
Feedback question:
In what ways is Satan seeking to devour you? How will you specifically exert trust in God to resist him?
As I Follow 