Be sober and be vigilant. | Live By Faith, Not By Sight
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Vigile candle

Be sober and be vigilant.

1 Peter 5:8 – “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour”.

It is so very important on how a person starts there day. You ever oversleep and wake up late for work? Forced to rush around and scramble about to get out the door and into the office (or restaurant, book store, etc) as fast as possible? And doesn’t it seem like when your running late for something, everyone in the world decides to drive slow that day? Like they were giving a heads up that you were going to be late that day, so they decided to take their foot off the gas and just drive slow that day.

When you’re in a rush, and everybody else isn’t, everyone seems to be moving slow to us. And a stressful morning like that can get even more stressful if a inconsiderate driver decides to cut you off. That can be the weight that finally sinks the ship! You’re in your car cussing up a storm. Making hand gestures. Or maybe even worse, exchanging ridiculous and offensive comments back and forth with the driver of the other car.


This sets the tone for your whole morning, maybe even your whole day. whether it does one or the other, one thing it certainly does is neutralize you spiritually, basic rendering you ineffective until the anger and frustration has subsided and been removed from your heart. We look at these things as “normal occurrences”, meaning things that we experience frequently. I’ve come to know, that most things interrupt our relationship with God, hide in the frequently normal occurrences we experience in our everyday lives.

Peter said in Chapter 5 verse 8 of first Peter, that the devil walks about the Earth like a roaring Lion seeking whom he can destroy! He said the only way to not be devoured or destroyed, is to remain “vigilant” and “sober”, the two most difficult things as followers of Christ we struggle with.


Let’s take the real-world example that I used. No one see’s satan as a roaring lion in that scenario. What I described is an example of a common event when driving on the road. There are people inside of these boxed machines, and they sometimes do silly things and react in silly ways. If I told you there was a starving lion coming down the street, roaring and salivating at the mouth, you would seek shelter.

But if that lion could somehow find a way to not be so menacing, to not appear so threatening, he would be able to devour more people, simply by the element of surprise. We can all see a hungry lion coming, but it’s hard to see him behind the wheel of a car, because lions don’t drive.


Let me say that again. It’s easy to see and spot and steer clear of a hungry lion on the loose, but it’s hard to steer clear of and avoid a lion when he’s not roaring, not showing his teeth, and behaving in a manner lions do not particularly do. Peter said the devil was “like” a lion, meaning he mimics his predatory characteristics, but he is not a lion because lions can’t drive cars that cut you off!

They can’t get on TV or Youtube or Facebook and say something that starts your blood to boil. All it takes sometimes is 1 crappy social media post, 1 text message, or 1 news article to turn a day that was going well, into a day of anger or jealousy. For those who may not be active participants of social media, don’t worry, because your mind is great at remembering all the things you try hard to forget! Like all the times you messed up in life. All the times you fail short. All the times you tried and failed. All the times you were wrong.


The Bible describes satan as the “adversary”, which means he is a ever contending enemy. If you are always on Gods mind, because the ones he love are always on his mind, then you are also always on satan’s mind as the one he hates! Peter said that he is “seeking“, which means that he is active! Seeking is not a “passive” word. You cannot seek anything unless you are actively doing it. He does not rest on his laurels after he devours someone, he his actively seeking the next target.

Peter chose his words carefully. Be sober and vigilant. These are not passive things. You cannot go about your life being sober and vigilant, unless you are putting forth the effort to do so. Be clear in your thinking. Not clouded. Not under the influence of something or someone, so you can make sound decisions. We must also constantly keep a watchful eye. Constantly, meaning everyday, every second and every hour. Not just for the big things, these are easily seen.

We must be vigilant towards the seemingly little things, because it is these things that find their way into our lives because we did not think such small things could cause so much havoc.

But many parasites are not able to be seen by the naked eye, they are microscopic, but can cause great damage to a person’s body, even unto death. Something that is small, if left untreated spreads, and causes dire consequences in a person’s life and in the lives of others. This is the natural design of sin. It is never segregated. When left to run free in one area of your life, it will began to spread in an attempt to destroy all the other area’s of your life as well.

While we are unable to shake the events from this morning, in the example I used earlier, waking up late, being late to work, encountering someone who was inconsiderate on the road, we are also unable to be effective spiritually to someone else.

The same way you could not have foreseen how the morning events would unfold; is the same way you cannot foresee the events God has for you on any giving day. We know we need to be of a sober mind and a sacrificial heart to do the work of a Disciple, across all tiers.

But when this is absent, we are unable to fulfill the task God would have destined for us to do that day. Think about all the times something or someone put you in bad mood, intentionally or unintentionally? While in that angry and frustrated state, how many persons were you able to bless? Were you the light that shown in the dark for that individual that God called for you to meet that day? The person who looked like they were not in need of anything, often times are in need of everything!

We cannot recognize them, because we are not looking at the right things. A person who’s life is not constructed around Christ is a person that’s in need. We must stop looking at people as the World does, through outward appearance. When we do that, we miss that God is putting someone right in front of us who needs him, but we fail to see the need, because economically they are doing well, or even very well.

I know for a fact, that hundreds if not thousands of opportunities were missed due to my lack of sobriety and vigilance. It is my hope for all of us, to stop looking for the lion at the front doors of our house. He has long stop trying to access your life that way. You have guarded that area religiously. He has no access through that gate.

Instead be of a humble spirit and recognize that in these earthly vessels we must sleep, but we have an adversary who never sleeps. Because he is constantly seeking a way into your life and into your heart even when your sleeping. Do not wake up and check that the front and back door of your heart is well-guarded (when I say home I mean your temple), instead I want you to check the not so obvious areas. Check under your bed, check your closet, there’s always skeletons in there. Check your attic and all the other places inside your heart, because he has already most certainly found a way in!

It is in the subtle things that we must be even the more vigilant. A sober mind could lead an unexpected soul to Christ. A sober mind has the ability to save a person’s life. It has the ability to introduce Christ to those who suffer from brokenness of life, brokenness of regret, brokenness of loneliness, brokenness of abuse and abandonment, the brokenness of neglect, and all other forms of disease and illness. He is the only person who suffered all these conditions in some fashion. The Bible said he became like “man” for our sakes.

Well to be a “Man”, a “hu-man”, is to suffer these things. These are the things that as humans we go through. How can he become a man like me if he doesn’t feel experience and feel the same things that I feel. He cannot. Then it is the Bible that is untruthful. So he is untruthful, and the greatest of liars. But God forbid! We know he speaks what only he knows which is truth!

In all the my time on this Earth, the only thing I ever found that was fit to brag about and boast in, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Teams lose. Countries get defeated. Great men lose elections. Boxers lose their titles. Weather forecast though accurate at times, are wrong many times. Buses are often times late. Kites don’t always fly due to lack of wind, but the one thing that has always been constant, and that has never failed, that I could always point to, is the love of Jesus Christ. He is the only thing I’ve ever found to be true when it rains, when it snows, when it’s cloudy, when it’s sunny.

He is the only thing that remains when everything else around me dissipates. It is the only irremovable object, because even an Earth quake can move a mountain from one place to another.

Why did men crumple and shake at his presence? Because they saw that which they could never be. I do not believe that God heels all wounds. I believe as a body we are supposed to minister to each other’s wounds.

Satan will draw you out, in all manners of temptation. If you are quick to anger, then he will anger you. If you are quick to shed blood, then he will provoke you. If you are quick to cheat, then he provide the opportunity. If you are resistant to authority, then through contention. If you are a hater of sin, then through harshness and judgement. If you are one who despises injustice, then through self-righteousness and wrath. If you are a lover of your country and state, then through foolish pride!

We seen the ripple effect of simply being cut off in traffic could deter a person purpose for the day. A minor thing. But the minor is harder to trap then the major, because the minor appears very inconspicuous.

We must be sober. We must be vigilant. In all our ways…

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