When Satan Roars

Are you familiar with the song "He's all that I need?" The chorus says "Let Satan roar like a lion, let him come in like a flood, I'm anchored in Jesus Christ my Lord, He's all that I need." While I know that is true, I much prefer the way our church choir sings those lines "When Satan roars like a lion, when he comes in like a flood..." I don't know about you, but in my life Satan has never needed an invitation to roar, he just busts right in!

If you have lived any time for the Lord, you have surely experienced Satan's roar. I don't mean the flat tire or your mortgage bill increasing or your health insurance cancelling, I mean the life altering, breath taking situations that arise seemingly out of nowhere. Those are the times when Satan roars. Those times you look back on for the rest of your life, as times of hardship and difficulty, times you learned much but would not desire to repeat. 

What do we do when Satan roars? Well, I get mad. Really mad. I mean, Satan is not our friend, he only wants to do us harm. We can not stick our head in the sand and pretend he is imaginary or not really out to get us. He IS out to get us. He IS out to get our children. He IS real. So, does that mean we should run and hide? No. It wouldn't do any good. The Bible says he is the "prince and power of the air," he knows how to find us. 

And before you read this far and think I am giving too much place to the devil, I beg you to continue reading and not allow the devil to deceive you into thinking it is better for us to keep pretending he isn't so bad or down-playing his desire to destroy. The Bible tells us to put on armor. Why would the Lord tell us to put on armor if we were not headed to battle? Oh, dear Christian friend, I can assure you we are not only headed to battle, I believe we are in the heat of it.

Ah, but what a Comforter we serve. What a Savior? He doesn't leave us to fight alone. 

James 4:7
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

This verse has been a balm for me lately, two things especially, Submit and Resist. Our dear Father has given us all we need to survive the roars of Satan and keep fighting the good fight. We are to submit to God; submit means to yield, resign or surrender to the power, will or authority of another. Christian, are you submitted? Truly submitted?  Resist means to literally stand against, to strive against, to defeat, frustrate or baffle. To disappoint. I don't know about you, but I want so much to baffle and disappoint the devil.  

Satan is roaring. He is going to continue to roar. He is not going to stop roaring until WE get home. So, what are you going to do? Hide in a corner and grieve all he has taken from you? Or get up, keep fighting and find VICTORY in Jesus? I have hidden in the corner and grieved. The pain he causes is real and should be grieved. But today, I am going to stand up and keep fighting, keep serving, keep submitting to God, keep resisting the devil, and watch him flee, and live Victorious!