How to Stand Up to a Lion…I Mean, The Devil

With all due respect to Darth Vader, Thanos, and Anton Chigurh—Hollywood’s most infamous villain didn’t get his start on the silver screen. He comes on the scene way back on page two of the Bible. It’s the Devil. In the scriptures, he orchestrates the introduction of sin into the world, the betrayal of Jesus, and the cosmic showdown known as Armageddon. In the movies, he makes little girls puke pea soup, has recently become very fond of Russell Crowe, and, weirdly enough, even fills in for Santa Claus.

While Hollywood’s 150-ish exorcism movies portray the Devil as an insurmountable villain, the Bible takes a different approach. The good book points a defiant finger in the ultimate bad guy’s face and calls him an oversized cat—and while still dangerous—one that we know how to take care of.

Who Really is the Devil?

Belief about spiritual beings is all over the map in culture today. But that wasn’t the case for the writers of Scripture. For Jesus, his friend Peter, and early missionary, Paul, the Devil wasn’t a metaphor, an icon of evil, or a fairy tale to explain the brokenness in the world. He was a spiritual being capable of influencing the physical world—through his own schemes or via his henchmen, who we call demons. Jesus said the Devil’s goal was to “steal, kill, and destroy” and that he was “the father of lies.” Paul saw the Devil as disguising himself to subvert God’s plans, bringing confusion and division. But it’s Peter’s description that’s captured my imagination lately. Near the end of his first letter to the early churches, he gives this advice:

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him.” (1 Peter 5:8-9)

Resisting being devoured by a ravenous beast seems like good advice—in the physical world as well as the spiritual one. But I live in Ohio. The only lions I’ve ever encountered were safely tucked behind thick glass at the zoo (and, alas, did not respond to shouts of “Hanukana Matata!”).

This is exactly the type of conundrum Google was built for. A quick search later, and I’m pretty sure I’d be okay if I ever find myself wandering the wilds of Africa. And, it turns out, Peter’s connection between the king of darkness and the king of the jungle is spot on. The things you’d do to resist a lion are the same things you do to push off the enemy of God.

It’s interesting that Peter doesn’t use conditional language when describing the Devil. He doesn’t say “when your adversary prowls” or “if your adversary prowls.” To him, an enemy on the hunt is a given fact of life. Whether you’re hunting wild game, or your friends on Call of Duty, the easiest prey is the one that doesn’t even know it’s being hunted.

Standing up to the Lion (Devil)

The enemy is prowling, and if you look closely, you can see his paw prints all over your life. It looks like that temptation that keeps you locked in a spiral of shame. It sounds like that voice in your head that says you’re unlovable, broken, and not worth the effort. It’s the me-first attitude, the cutting word toward your loved one, the pull to hoard instead of share, the desire to fight instead of forgive.

Anything that moves you away from God’s best comes from the enemy. That enemy might be a lion, but you aren’t powerless. According to the experts, the most important things to do if you encounter a lion (physical or spiritual) are (a) stand your ground, (b) make yourself loud, and (c) never, ever, run.

STAND YOUR GROUND

Lions are intimidating. I’ve seen Planet Earth, and how a hungry pride can take down an elephant. All the same, the first thing you have to do, if you want to survive, is find confidence.

Lions might be top predators, but they are still, like most wild animals, driven by ease. They’re actually quite jumpy and passive, and won’t go head-to-head with a strong and aggressive adversary unless forced to. Rather, they’re looking for the weak, injured, or isolated to make dinner. (There’s a not-so-thinly-veiled lesson in there about running with a pack of faith-supportive friends and family… like these three guys who take dinner from a pride of lions twice their size. Dang.)

Confidence communicates that you aren’t prey, even if you aren’t entirely sure you believe it yourself. For a physical lion, you put that confidence on display by:

• Maintaining Eye Contact - Prey avoid a lion’s eyesight; maintaining eye contact shows that big cat you’re not planning to be eaten today.
• Standing Tall - Crouching or trying to hide communicates weakness, marking you as a potential victim. Stand tall and proud.
• Staying Calm - Fear is palpable, and only prey puts it on display.

So what about the spiritual lion? The advice is the same.

• Eye Contact - Like the check engine light you keep avoiding, ignoring something doesn’t make it go away. C.S. Lewis said there were two problems we fall into when it comes to the spirit realm—we either ignore it or obsess over it. In a world that routinely discounts what it can’t see, believing there is an enemy is the necessary first step to resisting his plans.
• Stand Tall - No one defeats an enemy they’re afraid of. If you’re going to believe scripture about the presence of an evil one, then let’s also believe it when it teaches Jesus wins in the end—and that you’re on that winning team.
• Stay Calm - Jesus never looks panicked in the face of evil—be it staring down temptation, freeing a demon-possessed man, or speaking healing over a hurting little girl. Movies promote fear of the supernatural, while Jesus shows his all-out dominance over it… dominance he willingly shares with his kids.

MAKE YOURSELF LOUD

Step one was all about not portraying yourself as prey. Step two takes that even further. To quote Cool Runnings, you’re gonna show that overgrown fur ball that you’re a “badass mother who don’t take no crap off of nobody.”

On the African Savannah, that means yelling, singing, and clapping. Loud noises show you are in charge, and are likely to scare any lion off. The same thing works in the spirit realm. Worship, which at its heart is proclaiming the goodness of God (through song, prayer, art, gratitude, or a multitude of other options), keeps the evil one at bay. Jesus defeated Satan by quoting the truth of scripture into his twisted face (Matthew 4:1-11), through using his voice to take control (Mark 1:21-28), and through practicing spiritual disciplines like prayer and fasting (Mark 9:14-29).

Worship reminds us that God is good; that he can be trusted; that he is vastly more powerful than anything else in all of creation. When we choose to look to Him as our hope, especially when times are difficult, a key piece in the enemy’s plan is thwarted—which is to get our focus off God and onto ourselves or circumstances.

Daniel’s habit of prayer and worship got him tossed in a pit of lions, and I have to believe it was his first move as he hit the floor—a move that saved his life. When his wealth, family, and reputation were stripped away, Job worshipped and waited on God—and saw God move in power. And near the end of scripture, the book of Revelation explains that the evil one will be overcome by the blood of the Messiah and the words of praise God’s people speak.

In the beginning, God used words to create all living things. Created in his image, the words his children speak (especially in the face of trials, temptations, and tests) retain echoes of that same power. Sometimes, all you gotta do to take control is open your mouth.

NEVER RUN

The biggest mistake you can make when facing a wild lion is to turn your back and run. As soon as you do that, you’ve given the lion the upper hand.

Instead, back away slowly while facing the giant, maintaining eye contact and making noise. Walking right past the beast likely isn’t the best idea, but getting out of his way should be done with confidence that reminds him who is boss.

Scripture echoes a similar sentiment. A handful of times, it tells us to flee from temptation, especially the sexual kind (here and here, for example). But even more, it encourages us to be proactive—not to run and hope for the best, but to resist the Devil, and as a result, find him fleeing from us (James 4:7). The Bible instructs us to put on spiritual armor that allows us to stand our ground (Ephesians 6:10-20), and to boldly snatch others from the jaws of death (Jude 1:20-23). God even robs the lion’s precious plan of all its power by promising that every temptation we face is “common” (you’re not special, Devil) and comes with a way out, if we’re willing to look for it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

Following the Good Lion (Jesus)

We can boldly lock eyes with the evil one and choose a better way because of the love the Father has for us. In my own life, I’ve walked the hard path of healing from sexual abuse and from a self-centered pornography habit that grew from it. I’ve slogged through church hurt, a life-changing diagnosis for my daughter, and I’m currently working on establishing better emotional health. In all of those situations, I couldn’t just run away from something, I had to move toward someone. It wasn’t enough to just avoid the evil lion, I had to draw near to the righteous one.

One lion was bent on my destruction, but another one—the stronger, nobler, kinder one—has come that I might have life and have it abundantly. He did that, not only by rescuing me from the other lion, but by giving his own life up as a sacrifice for mine. When He resurrected, any lasting power of the evil one was drained away. The prowling lion may still put up a fight, but his days are numbered.

So when life gets hard, the temptation seems insurmountable, or the will to keep pressing on is drained, I remember the good lion, the one who still fights for me, and I press on. He has conquered. He is conquering. He will reign. And one day, tears, hurts, and surprise attacks will stop.

“Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered … He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” - Revelation 5:5, 21:4-5

Honestly, that’s a much better ending than any Hollywood movie can supply.

Disclaimer: This article is 100% human-generated.

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