The Enemy is a Lion WITHOUT Teeth

Day 297 of Photo Inspirations — The Enemy is a Lion WITHOUT Teeth
Tuesday Night, our Hyde-Out Clubhouse was packed to hear “News On 6” Anchor and Crime Reporter Lori Fullbright provide the latest crime trends and the best ways we can all be safer. She believes “knowledge is power”. She shared victims’ stories and the current scams that are set up to steal from us — particularly scams that convince innocent victims that they are dealing with “so called” nice, friendly people.  There are tech support scams, counterfeit merchandise scams, grant scams, free trips scams, timeshare scams, dating scams, door-to-door yarkwork or home repairs scams, collection agency scams.  And those scammers end up stealing thousands of dollars from their victims.

As I listened to Lori, I thought “How gullible can people be to fall prey to these scammers?  Common sense should keep us wide awake from such ploys.”  But Lori said, highly intelligent professionals (and even her own mother) hear the nice people speaking to them, and think that it’s for real.

Immediately, I thought about how our enemy, Satan, goes about as a roaring lion seeking who he can devour, but he can only devour those who are naive and easily deceived.  We need to be on high alert against the wiles of the enemy.  “He came to kill, steal and destroy, but Jesus came to give us life more abundantly.” (John 10:10)  But we need to KNOW the difference between LIGHT and darkness and the only way to know the difference is knowing HIM. Is  Satan powerful? Yes. Is God MORE powerful?  Absolutely.

“He ain’t got no teeth!”  I loved this story I heard from a man who recounted his experience of watching a lion in a zoo. “As I stood there,” he said, “an attendant entered the cage. He had nothing in his hands but a broom.  Carefully closing the door, he proceeded to sweep the floor of the cage.” He observed that the worker had no weapon to ward off an attack by the beast. In fact, when he got to the corner of the cage where the lion was lying, he poked the animal with the broom. The lion hissed at him and then laid down in another corner of the enclosure.

The man remarked to the attendant, “You certainly are a brave man.” “No, I ain’t brave,” he replied as he continued to sweep. “Well, then, that cat must be tame.” “No,” came the reply, “he ain’t tame.” “If you aren’t brave and the lion isn’t tame, then I can’t understand why he doesn’t attack you.” The attendant chuckled, then replied with an air of confidence, “Mister, he’s old — and he ain’t got no teeth.”

That’s the devil.  Ever since Jesus died on the cross, he “ain’t got no teeth.”  He can growl and he can roar, but he’s a defeated foe. As long as we become more and more knowledgeable, like Lori said, “Knowledge is power”, and stay in touch with our Lord Who will give us wisdom against the enemy, there is nothing he can do to harm us.  But we can’t just ignore the enemy.  Remember, he’s out there and will roam around to snag us or drag us into all kinds of distractions and steal from us.  We must always be on our guard.  This final verse says it precisely:

1 Peter 5:8-9  (LB) “Be careful—watch out for attacks from Satan, your great enemy. He prowls around like a hungry, roaring lion, looking for some victim to tear apart. Stand firm when he attacks. Trust the Lord….”