Resist the devil.....hunting that lion

Last time we gathered here, we said we'd be focusing on these verses:

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 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. (I Peter 5:8-9)

I guess we are pretty far removed from thinking that a lion is intimidating.....after all, we are surrounded by images that are not too ferocious! There's the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz, there's the lion in the MGM logo (who sometimes is replaced with a kitten), and then there are Mufasa, Scar, and Simba, and even Alex in the "Madagascar" movies. Not very spine chilling, you might say.
The people of Peter's time, though, knew what fierce beasts lions really are. God created them to truly be the "kings" of the wild, and their muscles, claws, teeth, and instincts make them extremely skilled hunters in the wild. Some of the folks listening to Peter's letter might have had friends or family that met their death in the Coliseum, torn apart by lions in the appalling displays that the Roman rulers arranged.
Here in the ending lines of his letter, Peter has built on the foundation that he laid earlier, talking about suffering for Christ here on earth, and he now is giving us some practical instructions for life. He is focused on living authentically for the Lord.
He mentions two characteristics that we should strive for, and he has personal experience with the need for these..... makes it more real when someone has "been there, done that" doesn't it?
First, he says to have self control. Jesus told Peter that before the rooster crowed one day, that He would deny the Lord. Peter protested, but what happened? He lost his self control, fell into temptation, and denied Jesus.
Second, Peter warns us to be alert. Remember when Jesus asked His disciples to "stay here and keep watch with me"? Jesus withdrew to pray. What did Peter do? Was he alert? Nope. He fell asleep.

So, Peter knows quite well that we Christians face an enemy, and that we need self control, and we need to be alert. He warns us that our enemy is the devil, and that he prowls around like a roaring lion. I don't know about you, but I get a mental picture of a lion hunting us, stalking us. To be totally honest, he isn't even sneaky about it -- he's roaring so that we will fear him and possibly panic.

Let's take inventory here....
Peter says that it's the devil who is prowling around us.
We are being hunted by one who rebels against God.
We are being hunted by one who is called the "father of lies."
We are being pursued by one who wants to destroy in us what Jesus has given us.
We are being tracked down by one who wants to steal our joy and our peace.

What do we do?
"Resist." "Stand firm."
Now, resisting the devil is not just something Peter thought up. He saw this modeled by Jesus.

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’" (Matthew 4:10)

Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” (Matthew 16:23)

Ouch, that hurt.....Jesus said that to Peter, himself. Remember that? Paul said to resist the devil, too:

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. (II Corinthians 2:10-11)

And James:

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (James 4:7)

Over and over again, the right approach to that roaring lion, that devil that pursues us, is defined for us by Jesus, by Paul, James, and now Peter, too.
But how do we "resist" him?
Hmmmmmm.
I don't know about you, but I'm not a very experienced hunter. I can trap mousies when we don't have a cat in residence, and I can admire the deer and turkey in our pasture, but hunting? Not so much. People who hunted lions in the recent past were termed "big game hunters," right? I can't think of bigger game, I don't think, than that ole devil!
A little research netted some interesting results.
One way to hunt a lion is to identify the lion in the wild (spot him) and follow him with a native tracker (stalk him). It's a pretty action-packed hunt, and the hunter must be extremely accurate and kill the animal with one shot.
Another way (which didn't seem very sportsmanlike to me, just sayin') was called "baiting." A carcass of some kind which is desirable or palatable to lions is hung up, and the hunter lies in wait for the hungry lion to get interested and stop to eat.
The third way was called "hounding" and the description seemed a lot like the fox hunts in the movies of yesteryear. A pack of dogs that are trained for the lion hunt are released, and they will track the lion and hold him at bay until the hunter can get there and shoot the lion, who is distracted by all the dogs.

What do these things have to do with resisting the devil?
Join us tomorrow, and we'll find out!