“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” – I Peter 5:8
I was never really a huge video game fanatic. I enjoyed my 8-bit Nintendo and my Nintendo 64, but I was not a gamer. However, I did enjoy role-playing games with good story line and quests to complete. I loved to guide my character from city to city looking for clues and fighting enemies. However, sometimes I would find myself in a desolate area of the game map and no matter which direction I looked, there was nothing to do. I would explore and look for treasure, but usually found nothing. After seeking help, usually through a game guide I purchased at any magazine retailer as there was no Internet available in the eighties, I normally discovered I was on the wrong side of the fictional land. My quest was in the other direction. As my character traveled to the next item in my quest, I started encountering roadblocks and obstacles. (Most of those obstacles carried fully automatic machine guns if I remember correctly.) If video games have taught me one practical life lesson it is this: if you consistently run into enemies, you are probably going the right direction.
Naturally the comparisons to video games go only so far. Life is no game. God doesn’t see it as a game. Satan doesn’t see it as a game. We don’t need to see it as a game either. So many people view their life as a competition though. “He who dies with the most toys wins.” “If you’re not first, you’re last.” There are so many clichés and creeds that support that notion. However, clichés and creeds are not scripture. They are simply clever sounding labels for greed and pride. In the era of YouTube billionaires, multi-million dollar lotto jackpots, and pyramid schemes, both ruthlessness and rapacity are at all-time highs. Of course no one wants to live in poverty or lack, so what is a Christian to do?
I have good news! God is more against poverty than is the rest of the world. Millions of Christians don’t believe it, but to deny it is to omit several dozen passages of scripture. I think one thing that all believers can agree on is this: God wants us to help people and be generous. However, if we don’t even have enough to meet our own needs, we certainly can’t be of much help to anyone else. Paul writes in Philippians 4:19, “And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Now many would have us believe that this means that God will only do the bare minimum to get us by. I don’t know about you, but my experiences tell me that I don’t serve a “barely enough” God. In II Corinthians 9:8 Paul writes to the church in Corinth, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” Does this sound like barely enough to you? Maybe I’m crazy, but “every good work” doesn’t sound like my mortgage payment or phone bill. God wants to see us blessed so that we can be a blessing to His kids!
Now as passionate as I am about God’s blessing and His will to bless His children, that is not my focus in this article. Some of us have latched onto this truth and are experiencing God’s favor and blessing in our lives. We have also discovered something else: the spiritual, mental, and even physical attacks are more frequent than ever. And this is not exclusive to being blessed monetarily. Giving up our time in service, launching a ministry, or simply sharing our faith with people will frequently be met with resistance that seemingly came out of nowhere. Why?
The answer is pretty simple; we are now a threat. There are millions of people that coast along with little to no resistance in their lives. Believers and non-believers alike can fall into this camp. I have seen fellow Christians that seem to be almost immune to attacks on their finances, family, or health. Upon closer examination however, we see that most of those who deal with little drama tend to also have the least ambition in the kingdom. We have all seen the church people that don’t serve, don’t give, and don’t make an impact for Jesus. The majority of these believers are doing nothing to spread the Gospel, add to God’s kingdom, or serve their fellow Christians. They are there for status, out of guilt, or for family obligation. In other words, they are no threat to the devil.
The key scripture above says that the enemy is seeking whom he may devour. Devouring really is only possible if there is a harvest to devour. When we serve and see people being impacted for the kingdom of God, we are gathering a harvest. When we give to people or ministries and we see the effects of that generosity, we are gathering a harvest. When we share our faith and lead people to the Lord, we are gathering a harvest. Satan wants that harvest. Any service that we give to God’s kingdom is stealing from the enemy’s kingdom here on earth. We are now a threat. Satan is quick to deal with a threat.
So why bother? If we can coast along without being harassed by the devil and the forces of darkness, why should we even try? Well first of all, obedience. We were given the great commission in Matthew 28:19-20 which reads, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” If there was no other reason, His command should be enough to get us moving!
We also need to constantly remember that attacks of the enemy do not mean victories of the enemy. Satan will certainly attack anyone that is encroaching on land he perceives as his, but his attacks are only effective if we stand idly by and accept them. II Corinthians 2:14 read, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ,…” The enemy can attack, but if we are living in our privileges as children of God, he doesn’t get to win. We always get the victory. Naturally we receive this victory through faith. We have full authority to tell the devil to take a hike! In his letter, James says in chapter four verse seven, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Now THAT is God-given authority. To be an overcomer, we must have overcome something right? The more we get victory, the closer we get to the end of the race. In the video game example, as long as we’re still running into enemies, we are getting closer to beating the game. It is no different in life. The only difference is that we can’t lose this game. The final boss has already been defeated!
As we serve, give, witness, and love, we will certainly run into opposition. However, that just means that we are stealing souls from the enemy’s kingdom and adding them to God’s. Let’s not grow weary in well doing as the scripture says (Galatians 6:9), but let’s run our race and gather the harvest. We will be a target for Satan, but he’s already been defeated. Let’s be a threat to the enemy. Let’s draw his attention. We may have attacks thrown at us, but we always get the victor and the rewards are worth it!