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

                                                                                                                   1 Peter 5:8-9 

We have already looked at one reason why we need to have perseverance. We know that the world will not assist or congratulate believers in their walk with Christ, but there is another practical reason why perseverance should be in the arsenal of every Christian. We have a spiritual enemy. Because this enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), we must be all the more vigilant in our faith and that takes perseverance.

Peter’s first admonition is for us to be “of sober spirit.” We live in a fallen world in which numerous people are simply trying to cope with life. This is often done through artificial means like drugs and alcohol. These substances provide a numbing effect that allows the user to escape reality, at least for a time. For unbelievers, this is perfectly understandable since a person void of the Holy Spirit must ultimately turn to something else in order to make sense of life. But when a believer’s life is reduced to merely existing, something has gone terribly wrong. We all go through peaks and valleys, good times and bad, but for believers these are opportunities for growth in their faith. Christians should be living in the spiritual abundance and victory that they have in Jesus, being vigilant in their faith, always looking for opportunities to further the kingdom of God and the gospel.

Peter also warns us to be “on the alert” and with good reason. He describes our spiritual enemy, the devil, as being like a roaring lion always seeking someone to devour. When you stop and consider that our faith is our righteousness (Romans 4:5, Romans 10:10), that our public confession of Jesus as Lord results in our salvation (Matthew 10:32, Romans 10:10, 1 John 4:15), and that believers are to seek unity in the Spirit and to not be divided (Ephesians 4:3, 1 Corinthians 1: 10), it’s not surprising that the enemy would be seeking to disrupt our lives in these areas. Sowing seeds of doubt, trafficking in fear, and seeking to disrupt the unity of Christians would seemingly be an effective strategy for stifling the life of a believer. That’s why it is so important for us to guard our hearts against such attacks, knowing that our faith is able to extinguish all of the enemy’s attempts to hijack our lives (Ephesians 6:16). This is what it means to “resist him, firm in our faith” and this is accomplished by staying sober in spirit and being on the alert.

Finally, Peter reminds us that we are not alone in our spiritual warfare and suffering. Every born again believer in Jesus understands this spiritual conflict and is capable of lending support for others going through the same experiences. We are instructed to “bear one another’s burdens” and by doing so we are fulfilling the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2). With this in mind, let’s unite with others who are like-minded, to fearlessly proclaim the name of Jesus, understanding that our faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross is our righteousness, and persevere as we live in the spiritual freedom and abundance that is ours in Christ!