God’s Battle Plan for Beleaguered Sheep from 1 Peter 5:8-11 Blindsided, sneak attacks: Unless you are the attacker, these are not fun times. Enemies love the element of surprise. Catching a foe unaware can meant victory or at minimum, heavy damage. Today’s text – 1 Peter 5:8-11 – warns us that a hungry lion is on the loose. Be aware! Fight back fiercely in The Faith, being confident that the Great Shepherd is watching over His fold. “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Peter 5:6-11 ~ ESV) In his amazing book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis insightfully wrote: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight." Beware of ignorance of or obsession with things of our enemy. May today’s text make us battle ready us we confidently live as God’s elect exiles, submitting ourselves under His mighty hand. Dr. Howard Hendricks wrote: "You will never learn to suffer with the right attitudes if you have never learned to submit at every level, and you will never learn to submit if you do not have a deep appreciation of the salvation with which you were saved." Thankful for our “greater than” Savior (1 John 4:4), Kerry Doyal
Posted on: Mon, 01 Jul 2013 17:06:12 +0000
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