It’s okay to want to devour our enemies, right? People who express ill-will towards us, stand for different things than us, and definitely those who disagree with us on politics not only deserve our ire, but also to be fed to a bunch of hungry crocodiles. Oh, you disagree? You must be one of the few people not engaging in angry rhetoric and hyperbole these days. Maybe you even believe God’s call for us to love our enemies? You, radical, you. Do you believe in unicorns as well?
All kidding aside, it’s good to refrain from any desire to hurt someone who comes against us, even those who fancy themselves our enemies. It is clear God encourages us to show love and kindness instead of answering with hate. That said, this is not the enemy I’m talking about devouring, nor the one I wish to focus on today. I’m talking about the devil. No, I don’t mean that Republican you called the devil last night, I mean THE devil – Satan.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
-1 Peter 5: 6-11
As you can see in the highlighted section above, “your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to DEVOUR.” I say we devour him! How about that? Well, it might help to do it God’s way because, a) God’s way tends to be the best way, and b) doing things in our own strength is acting more like the devil than God. Looking at the rest of the passage we see it’s key to HUMBLE OURSELVES UNDER GOD’S HAND AND WAIT FOR THE TIME HE WANTS TO LIFT US UP. Hmm, I don’t like waiting, do you? That can lead to anxiety and other uncomfortable feelings. Well, would you look at that?! It says to CAST ALL YOUR ANXIETY ON HIM (GOD) BECAUSE HE CARES ABOUT YOU. Maybe, we should just ignore the devil’s schemes or fill our minds with something else? Yeah! Ignorance and distraction are awesome ways to win against anyone or anything! Oh wait, it says to BE ALERT AND OF SOBER MIND. Welp, I guess that plan is out too. The passage also states how we need to RESIST HIM (THE DEVIL) AND STAND FIRM IN OUR FAITH, KNOWING OTHER BELIEVERS ARE SUFFERING TOO. Those sound like some proactive actions to me and should remind us that all believers will endure suffering. It sounds like, instead of wallowing in our suffering, we would be better served to not just focus on the suffering the devil wants to use to keep us down, but rather RESIST, and STAND IN OUR FAITH. That’s how we take the fight to our enemy and watch him be devoured!
In the video below, there is a younger brother playing basketball indoors with his older brother guarding him and his dad filming. It’s meant to be a funny clip because the younger brother is scoring on his older brother and “trash-talking.” But what if we had a little bit of that swagger (like the younger brother in the video), as the devil (the older brother in the video) attempted to guard us, and our Father in heaven (the dad in the video) looked on in amusement? Hopefully we would be drawing strength from our Heavenly Father in this battle as we yelled out things like “All day!” as we resisted the devil or sharing a laugh with God about how Satan’s ways to try and keep us down (or Satan himself) were “trash.” Are we more content in seeing our enemy the devil squash our attempts at moving forward, too lazy to resist him, or even less motivated to humbly submit to God so He can lift us up and through these battles? Or are we willing to proactively resist the devil and stand strong in our faith with purpose, AND on a consistent basis? I hope each one of us will choose the latter.