“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8).
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:7-8).
Think what a cruel mockery it were if the shepherd should say, “Little lamb, be sober, be vigilant, the old lion is about. Be not so eager after thy buttercups and daisies as to keep no sharp lookout; and if he comes upon thee, stand up bravely against him, and he will run away.” Then the shepherd goeth away over the hills and home. The lamb scarce ventures so much as to nibble, in the eagerness of its watch, and in its fears. And lo, with the darkness there cometh the lion. What of watchfulness and brave resistance? One stroke of that paw, and the lamb is dead! Is that it? Then let him who knoweth anything of his own heart despair. Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
No; thou and I, my brother, are no match for the old lion. Be sober, be vigilant, be not so eager after anything that thou dost suffer the Good Shepherd to go far from thee. Keep looking up that thou mayest see Him. Thy safety is only in His presence; thou canst rest only in His shadow. Cast all the care of thy safety upon Him, and then let all thy thought and prayer and effort be to keep close to Him. The only peril lies where Peter found it, following Him afar off. John was too close to his Lord to be tempted to deny Him. Right in under that mighty Hand is the place of our resistance.
Thus the practical Apostle James puts it: “Submit yourselves therefore to God.” “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” Our effort is to get near to God, and to keep there, then we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge,” where I run and hide from my foes. Then, “I will say of the Lord, He is . . . my fortress,” where I turn and fight against them. “Surely he shall deliver thee.”—Mark Guy Pearse.