HELP! – There is a Lion in My Living Room!
I Peter 5:8 says “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
If there was a lion in your living room, I’m sure he would not go unnoticed or be allowed to prowl around your house, nor would you get close enough to him to be devoured. However, the devil is just as real, just as dangerous, and just as hungry.
Regrettably, in many homes across this nation, he’s prowling around freely, and devouring our families with teeth sharpened by hate, anger, bitterness, malice, gossip, lust, and those fleshly habits that we let go unchecked and unchanged. In fact, in many of our homes, he has become like a family pet that we feed each other to, and believe me, there’s plenty of division and discontentment in our homes today to keep him well-fed, fat, and happy for a long time.
In my home, being the people-pleasing peacekeeper that I am, instead of fighting the lion in my living room, I just bandage the wounds he inflicts upon my family. Too often I’ve allowed him to intimidate me with his size and silence me with his roar while I cower in the corner, helpless and afraid, allowing this lion in my living room to feed on me and my family day in and day out. Sadly, I’ve even used him to attack my family to satisfy my own anger and hurt. Oh! I’ve fasted and prayed for God to remove the lion or open our eyes so we can see the lion and avoid him. I’ve even tried to tame the lion, (silly me) but all to no avail.
A Divine Revelation
Then, recently, God brought to my attention II Corinthians 12:7, which talks about Paul’s thorn in the flesh, which God used to remind him that God’s power is perfected in our weakness. Paul realized that God allowed this thorn, this messenger of Satan, to buffet his flesh and keep him from exalting himself. At that moment, I realized that this was the lion in my living room, and this lion had a divine purpose for being there.
Please don’t hear that Satan ever intends to be divinely used by God to accomplish God’s plan and purpose for us. However, God allows Satan to buffet us to expose our weaknesses so we will place no confidence in our flesh. Our weaknesses also teach us dependency on Christ, and as we boast of them, we exalt the power of Christ that dwells in us. Therefore, my heart desires to say as Paul did, “I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
A Divine Challenge
One word of caution though! Many of us, including myself, while thinking we’re suffering for the sake of Christ, end up suffering from the lie that victimization or enabling bad behavior promotes peace. Believe me, when I say, I now know the difference. However, Jesus never derived peace through non-confrontation means. Jesus publicly humiliated this roaring lion and pulled out every one of his teeth when he rose from the grave and conquered sin and death, defeating Satan once and for all! He also gave us spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-17) to protect us and help us walk in victory over this defeated foe.
Call to Action
God’s grace is sufficient to handle anything that Satan can dish out if we allow God’s power to be perfected in our weaknesses. In Christ, it’s OK to be weak, vulnerable, and powerless because He will never fail to be our strength when we are.
“Father, show us the roaring lion prowling around seeking whom he may devour and help us to fight him with Your strength, girding ourselves with Your spiritual armor that promises to extinguish his fiery arrows. Let us see our areas of vulnerability or weakness as an opportunity to grow in our dependency upon You and let us truly find our sufficiency in Your grace; the power that raised Your Son from the dead, defeated sin and death once and for all, put the enemy to shame and public humiliation, and saved a wretch like me. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.”