⁸Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. ⁹But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

Going through life with a mortal enemy stalking us is sobering. Since we don’t see him physically, we can easily be lulled into spiritual carelessness. Peter understood this well. At one point, when he resisted the notion that Jesus had to suffer and die, the Lord shot back at him, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (Matt. 16:23). Later, when he and the other disciples wrestled over who of them was the greatest, Jesus said specifically to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31–32). Immediately after, the Lord warned him that he would deny him three times. Peter, writing some thirty years later as a seasoned disciple, must have often thought back to those experiences, which put him on continual notice of the spiritual dangers waiting to derail him from effective spiritual ministry.

Peter passes this caution on to his readers: be sober-minded and alert. There is nothing more precarious than for a Christian to go through life ignorant of Satan’s ambushes. The enemy of our souls may be subtle at times, with seemingly innocuous temptations, or he could pose as a seemingly spiritual individual, preacher, or prophet—“an angel of light” (2 Cor. 11:14). But make no mistake about it, Satan is as dangerous as a hungry wild animal let loose from his cage. He is no respecter of persons; all Christians are fair game to him, no exceptions. He offers no truce or ceasefire. There arise no spiritual equivalents to the Geneva Convention outlining the rules of war. His goal is to render Christians as useless non-entities in God’s plan for this world.

We must resist him with a firm faith. No coasting is allowed, for our enemy will find our weak spot and attack it mercilessly, especially when we are at our weakest, that is, when we are suffering. He will try to isolate us in our weakness and make us think we are unique in our struggle with temptation and sin. So we encourage ourselves with the testimonies of others who are suffering yet remaining faithful to the Lord. Their experiences are accomplishing in them great things in the spiritual battle as they resist Satan. So we are encouraged to stand firm also, resisting Satan’s efforts to sideline us.

Lord, thank You for the testimony of all those who suffer for You faithfully.