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.  1 Peter 5:8-9 ESV

Friends, we have a real enemy who is consistently seeking to devour us.

What does this mean? What does this look like in everyday life? Can Satan truly destroy us if we are children of God?

Well, for believers the answer is no. He cannot pluck us out of the hand of God (John 10:28-29). He cannot undo our salvation or separate us from God’s love (Romans 8:38-39). He cannot destroy our souls (Matthew 10: 28). But, he can devour our confidence, faith, relationships, righteousness, emotions, health, and thoughts while we are on earth.  

There are two key things we must remember when we are being devoured:

1. We must recognize the enemy’s lies and the people, situations, and excuses he hides behind.
2. We must retaliate against those lies with the truth of God.

Be sober-minded; be watchful…

To recognize means to be watchful and see the various ways that the enemy is attacking our lives. These attacks are not always easy to identify at first because he “disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).  This means that he camouflages himself with the different situations and people in our lives when actually he is the one who is attacking us. We may forget he is there or we may forget that he is actually the bad guy.

That fight with your spouse, the traffic jam when you are already running late, the thoughts you have about not being quite enough, the dreadful diagnosis you just received, the loss of a loved one, etc.  He uses these things to devour us and to injure our faith and hope in the Lord.

Resist him, firm in your faith…

After we recognize that these things are not coincidence, we then should retaliate against Satan’s attacks. Just like Jesus reciprocated with the truth found in God’s Word when the devil was tempting Him in the wilderness, we must also take up the “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17) in the midst of battle.

This means that we have to be engaged and rooted in the Word of God in order to be able to use it when the enemy is prowling around in our lives. We can’t just graze over Scripture because “it’s the right thing to do” or only open our Bibles while sitting on the Sunday morning pew. I’m telling you, as someone who used to do both of these things… it won’t work!

We must cleave to the word of God desperately, whether we are in a desperate season of life or not.

I’m speaking to myself as well when I say that we have to realize that we need to cling to Jesus in all of life’s ups and downs. That means we have to absorb His Word and have conversation with Him not out of habit, but out of the realization that we desperately and consistently need Him.

Start today anew. Recognize the different areas of your life where the enemy is trying to attack you, and then retaliate by leaning fully into the Father and His Truth.

Gals, stay watchful. Stay firm in your faith. Your enemy does not rest… but thankfully, neither does your God!

Father, I am so thankful that You have equipped us with Your own words and precious Holy Spirit so we might retaliate against the enemy’s attacks. We never have to fear that we will be destroyed by the devil, because You came down to earth and conquered him once and for all. His clock is ticking and he is seeking to wreak as much havoc as he can before it is finished, but YOU ARE IN FULL CONTROL. Lord, keep us strong. Help us to constantly and consistently be seeking You. Help us to ground ourselves so deeply in Your truth that we are able to immediately recognize the enemy’s lies. My Father, I pray for each woman reading this devotion right now, that You would make Yourself known to her in a new and mighty way today and be her strength. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.