“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

— 1 Peter 5:8 (NKJV)

In the world we are either predators or prey however, in God’s spirit a bird in the hand is mutual trust!

DAY 1

THE CUB THINKS THE MEADOW IS HIS

Why the young and the strong are the easiest prey

Every young thing believes it is the hunter.  That is the whole trouble with being young, and the young did not invent it; it was handed down to them, same as freckles.  The fawn thinks the meadow was made for its legs.  The cub practices its roar on the house cat.  And all the while the parents stand at the edge of the clearing doing the actual work of keeping death at a polite distance — so the little one is free to strut around convinced that strutting is what keeps it alive.

It is a beautiful arrangement, and it is exactly the season when a creature is most sure of itself and least worth betting on.  Arrogance is not the armor the young imagine it to be.  It is the doorbell that tells the roaring lions supper is home.  And this is not only a young man’s trouble — it is a strong man’s trouble at every age.  The moment you feel most untouchable, bulletproof or even invisible is the moment your guard has quietly left the room.

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.”

— 1 Corinthians 10:12 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  Where do I currently feel most cock sure of myself — most “I’ve got this handled”? That is worth a second look today.

•  Whose quiet protection have I been mistaking for my own strength?

PRAY

Father, keep me from the arrogance that rings the doorbell for the roaring lion. Where I feel strongest, station a guard I can’t dismiss. Thank you for watching over me.  Amen.

DAY 2 (Who’s the most powerful predator the lion, crocodile, eagle or the shark?)

THE CHAIN IS A RING

Every predator is somebody’s supper the minute he steps off his ground

Here is a fact the plains do not advertise.  In the old order of things the lion rules the grass — until the grass runs down to the riverbank, and there the crocodile has already written the rules and filed them under water.  The shark owns the blue water until the blue water thins to a tide pool, and then the eagle he never worried about is standing on his back with an opinion.

Take any king you like and set him one country over from the country that crowned him, and watch the crown slip off his head like a hat two sizes wrong.  Every predator is somebody’s supper the moment he steps off his own ground.  Breakfast and supper trade places all day long, given the right patch of dirt.  The chain is not a ladder.  The chain is a ring, and it comes all the way round to touch its own tail.  Remember that the next time you feel like the top of the food chain: it only takes a change of ground.

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

— Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  What is the “ground” where I’m genuinely strong — and where lately have I been wandering off it?

•  What tide pool have I walked into thinking I was still in open water?

PRAY

Lord, teach me the edges of my own ground, and the humility to stay on it. Keep me from crossing borders that were never mine to cross by obeying your commandments and laws.  Amen.

DAY 3

THE QUESTION FROM THE LAP

What is more dangerous than a regiment

Here is a riddle for a strong man.  What is more dangerous than a regiment with good boots and better rifles?  The strong man will never guess it, being busy admiring the rifles.  It is a woman who knows the one question that unravels him.  Samson could snap new rope like wet thread and clear a battlefield with a jawbone he found lying around — and yet he could not get free of a question that came to him soft, from a lap, at the end of the day.  The army couldn’t lay a finger on him.  The subtle one did, with a whisper repeated until it wore a groove.

Mark how it wore him down: not by force but by repetition.  Scripture says she pressed him daily with her words until his soul was vexed to death.  Not tortured.  Vexed.  Nagged past the point where a tired man will trade his life for a little quiet.  His strength was never the problem.  The daily question was.  Strength cannot answer a question — only a will can, and his had gone soft from lack of use.

“And it came to pass, when she pestered him daily with her words and pressed him, so that his soul was vexed to death.”

— Judges 16:16 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  What is the “daily question” being pressed on me right now — the one that’s slowly wearing a groove?

•  Am I trying to answer a will-problem with willpower, when what I need is to leave the lap?

PRAY

Father, strengthen my will where my strength cannot help me. Give me the sense to walk away from the subductive whisper by listening to the still small voice before it wears its groove.  Amen.

DAY 4

THE QUESTION MARK AND THE PERIOD

How did the serpent burgle the garden?

The serpent is subtler than any woman and subtler than any army, and he studied under nobody.  He does not come rattling a warning like an honest snake, nor flare a hood and show you the crown so you know where you stand.  He comes smiling, like a neighbor who noticed something helpful.  He does not kick the door in — that wakes the dogs.  He leans in and wonders aloud whether the door was ever really locked, and whether a locked door isn’t a little insulting to a grown person besides.

Notice, in the garden, he did not argue.  Arguing is loud, Satan is subtle because loud wakes the conscience.  He only asked.  He put a small question mark where God had put a period, and let the punctuation do the burglary.  The woman looked — and the instant she looked, the forbidden fruit turned reasonable, then pleasant, then downright wise, which is the exact order in which every ruin has ever dressed itself.  Dominion walked out of the garden on their heels like a dog that had found better company.

“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?””

— Genesis 3:1 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  Where has a “Has God really said…?” crept into my thinking and turned a period into a question mark?

•  What have I lately started calling “reasonable” that I once simply called off-limits? Give Satan an inch he’ll become a ruler.

PRAY

Lord, guard my punctuation.  Where You have placed a period, keep me from penciling in a question mark.  Let Your word be enough.  Amen.

DAY 5

IS THERE A LONG RECORD OF THE STRONG WHO FELL

David, Solomon, Saul, Peter and all of us?

The same question keeps a busy travel schedule, and does its best work on the accomplished.  David met a giant with creek stones and walked back a legend — then, one idle evening on a rooftop, let his eyes wander where they had no errand.  The man who could rally a nation could not rally his own glance across a courtyard, and the fall made no noise at all.  That is the thing to mark.  It cost him a loyal soldier, a buried child, and a sword that never left his house.

Solomon, the wisest head that ever wore a crown, was undone not by a wiser man but by a slow tide of affection that turned his heart one small preference at a time, the way water turns a stone. Saul kept back the best of the spoil like a priest and got to feel religious while he disobeyed — and partial obedience is the more dangerous poison for exactly that reason. And Peter, first out of the boat and first to swing a sword, was undone by a servant girl at a fire asking a small question three times.  No soldier drew on him.  Fear of man did what an armed mob could not.  What would they think or do to me?

“But when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.”

— 1 Kings 11:4 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  Which of these four am I most like this season — the wandering glance, the slow tide, the partial obedience, the fear of man?

•  What “small preference” is quietly turning my heart, one degree at a time?

PRAY

Father, I am no stronger than these men. Catch my glance, hold my heart against the slow tide, and make me obey all the way down.  Amen.

DAY 6

EVEN THE SON

And the four small lies that build the cage

There is exactly one Man in the whole record who took the full course of the tempter’s cupboard — bread for a real hunger, a spectacle to prove Himself, all the kingdoms of the world deed-in-hand — and walked away with everything He came in with.  To every offer He gave the same reply: not cleverness, not force, but the word already written, quoted back to the one who hates it most.  And then read the frightening part: the devil departed from Him until an opportune time.  He knows exactly when to fold his cards and wait.   He is content to lose nine rounds to buy the tenth — the one where you are tired, or lonely, or flush with a little success. When we feel strong we become vulnerable but when we are week we are strong.

He works, if you want it plainly, in four small lies, always in order.  First, at the fence: What’s a little going to hurt?  Second, once the little is done: since you’ve had a little, have all you can have all you want.  Third, once you’re in past caring: who else should we bring to the party?  Fourth, the one that builds the cage: let’s set a standing date and make a regular thing of it — and go cagger recruiting. That is the wide road that leads to destruction, and it is wide because it was built to move a great deal of traffic in one direction: down.

“Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.”

— Luke 4:13 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  Which of the four lies am I hearing right now —whats a “little going to hurt,” in for a nickel in for a dollar the “all you can hold,” the “who else can we recruit?,” or the “Friday night standing date”?

•  Where is my “opportune time” — the tired, lonely, or successful spot where my guard goes down?

PRAY

Jesus, You answered every offer with the word already written.  Put that word in my mouth for my opportune hour, and shut the door You shut.  Amen.

DAY 7

THE GROUND THAT IS A PERSON

Where is my soul is finally safe

Put the whole pattern together. The serpent does not require an army — armies are expensive and alert the neighbors. He requires two cheap things: a lowered resistance and a question that sounds reasonable. He coils and constricts while he talks, so the tightening feels like a hug right up until it doesn’t. He came, the record says, to steal and to kill and to destroy — to take every good work, every clean joy, everything Jesus Christ paid for on your behalf — one reasonable question at a time.

Now the good news, which is better than the bad news is bad. The safe ground is not a spot on any map — which is why the lion and the shark keep losing their crowns; they trusted a territory, and territory can be left. The soul’s safe ground is a Person and a posture. The Person is Christ; the posture is the prayer of plain trust that answers the serpent’s first question with the garden’s first answer, before he can get the second one out: God has said, and that is enough. Stand there and he can hiss all afternoon and gain nothing. The list of the strong who stepped off is long and honest — but it is not the last word. The invitation to stand is still open, this morning, to you. Keep your eyes on the prize.

“Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

— James 4:7 (NKJV)

CARRY IT

•  What would “standing on the Person, not the territory” look like in the one situation I’m most tempted in?

•  What is the “first answer” I need ready this week — the plain no I’ll give before the second question comes?

PRAY

Father, You are my ground.  Fix my feet on Christ and my eyes on the prize.  When the friendly question comes to the fence — and it will — give me the first answer, and send the subtle one packing. We are never weaker than after a victory for our guard is down and our eyes are on self not savior.  Amen.  Brother bill/dad