Satan is a Real Character

Last Sunday while attending my childhood home church, I had a flashback of the nine year old me attending Sunday School class there for the first time. My family had moved three times in five years with my dad’s job transfers.  Moves were unsettling, but our first bit of stability in every relocation was finding our local church. That priority kept our faith intact and gave us a place to belong, make new friends, and serve.

In my flashback, I was sitting on a cold metal folding chair learning a memory verse. The teachers were two dear women, Thelma and Wilma.  Thelma used a great memorization technique that made it easy to learn the verse.  She wrote it on the board and each time we read it, she erased one word so we would have to fill in the blank. Twenty iterations later, the verse etched into brain cells so deeply that I can still quote it.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeing whom he may devour: [I Peter 5:8]

I had already learned that Satan was real and sneaky and mean as a sly ole fox. But I was also taught not to fear him because I John 4:4 says “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” So when my nine year old self memorized I Peter 5:8, I didn’t worry that he might devour me, but I knew I had to be vigilant.

I’m no lion expert, but have read of a few interesting prowling habits. Lions usually hunt in the darkness, tending to stalk in dense cover vs. ambushing in the open. They prefer to go for single prey, and sometimes paw their prey from the back to get them off balance before pouncing. If they miss on the first try, they usually abandon that prey.

So part of my daily vigilance against the devil is to stay away from darkness - where I go, what I read, what I watch, and how I think. Another defense is to not do life alone.  Isolation and loneliness leave us vulnerable, but belonging and connecting with other believers helps keep our balance. And whenever I do sense a threat from Satan, I resist him and he flees. James 4:7 instructs: Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. One of the strongest forms of resistance is to quote scripture, just as Jesus did in Luke 4 when Satan tempted Him during His fast. Satan is a deceiver and an accuser (Revelations 12:9-11.) He comes accusing us like an prosecuting attorney, feeding us lies straight from the pit of hell because he is the father of lies (John 8:44.) So we combat him with the word of our heavenly Father, the Father of truth and light.

I don’t believe in giving Satan too much credit by talking about him all the time, so I don’t. But as my Sunday School verse flashed back last Sunday, I realized that we live in a culture today where many view the devil as a fictional character. I’m thankful for the reminder that I still believe he’s real and sneaky and mean.

When I was nine, I believed this because people I trusted told me he was. Now with a few decades of living under my belt, I have seen his ugly destruction firsthand in plenty of prey caught off guard.  And I’ve felt his grubby little paws on my back a few times, trying to push me off balance. He may prowl after me, but he will not devour me. Satan’s a real character, alright. But he’s a snotty-nosed little weakling up against my big Daddy.