“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.”
We live in a day when Satan is roaring more loudly than ever before. The sound of his roar through the media, political and social upheaval, economical and natural catastrophes fills the earth in order to penalize people with fear and to cause panic. And just like a prey in the wild, it is those who panic that the lion will devour.
But the Bible says that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7) To be able to operate in power and to maintain a sound mind when the devil roars in our lives and in our world requires us to walk in love. I John 4:18 says,” There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.” When we read the context of this verse, we see how love is perfected in us, so that we have no fear. I John 4:16-17 says,“And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.”
We have to know, I mean a deep-down knowing, and believe without a shadow of a doubt that God loves us unconditionally. This knowledge and faith in God’s love causes us to abide, make our dwelling place, in agape love. Agape love has no hooks or agenda. Agape love trusts so explicitly that it lays down all of its rights and privileges just like Christ did for us. Agape love causes us to abandon ourselves totally to God. The deeper we abide in agape love, the deeper we abide in God, and God abides in us because God is love. John goes on to say that when we abandon ourselves in God’s love, it gives us boldness in the day of judgment because we are then in the world just like Jesus is in the world.
When we have this stance of love, the lion’s roar, no matter how loud or ferocious, has no hold on us. In fact, out of this position of love, we can maintain a sound mind while the world panics; we have the power to overcome while the world cowers in fear, and the boldness to speak out and to do what God has equipped us to do in this hour of judgment. Be sober or self-controlled, and vigilant, resisting the enemy in faith. In the midst of the loud roaring of the lion in this world, take time to hear the still quiet voice of the one who loves intensely and has purchased victory for us by His blood.
Andy Clark
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