1 Peter Chapter 5
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Sober-minded is a word that echoes in my soul. Something about it just grabs my attention every time I stumble across it in Scripture. Sobriety is a calling. A word of invitation. To be of sober mind is to resist the intoxication of lies, and the only way to do that is to drench yourself in truth.
We, as disciples, are being called to dive into a flood of freedom and truth. Why? Because something is out there. Someone is out there. And he is absolutely raging with a hunger to desolate us. He wants to single us out so that he can tear us down.
But we have the blood and the grace and the name of Jesus. We are called not to run from him, but to resist him. The power that we carry in our hope and our faith is strong enough to overthrow the hardiest of lies. Even greater than the knowledge of that power is the knowledge that we are not alone. We have a brotherhood that shares in our hope…and in our suffering.
Resist the lion. Endure the darkness with the light in your heart. Fight the good fight. And the God of all grace will restore you. Confirm you. Strengthen you. Establish you. That’s my favorite part. Establish. When God establishes things, nothing tears them down unless He signals the wrecking ball.
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