1 Peter 5:8 – Grits with Grace

Family, fear, friends, Grace, gratitude, life, love, loving others, missions, priorities, Scripture, sovereignty of God, thankful, travel, Trials

Sleeping in the Grass

Posted on March 27, 2024March 26, 2024 by Dewayne Taylor

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
1 Peter 5:8

We found him sleeping in the grass. Sound asleep. A few years ago, I had the privilege of going to Uganda and learning about Watoto ministries. The trip allowed me to see the incredible work of Watoto up front and personal. They work with orphaned babies and children as well as single mothers. They raise the kids to become Christian leaders and help the mothers provide for their families.

Part of the trip involved us going to Northern Uganda to see the work in that part of the country. It also gave us the opportunity to take a safari and see some animals in the wild. You are on their turf and their terms. We saw a large variety of animals but there was one we all wanted to see. The lion. It is like the holy grail of safaris–to see the “king of the jungle.”

Our guide that day just happened to be one of the park rangers, so he had access to areas others did not. So off we went. Before long there was a report of a lion sleeping in a tree. We went cross country and before long, bam, there was a lion…sound asleep. Well, it was incredible–asleep or not. We snapped about a hundred pictures of our sleeping friend and moved on.

We drove for about 30 minutes and another report came of a group of lions about 50 yards off the road. Our guide, the ranger, told the driver to drive though this ditch and he did. Sure enough, there were the lions. There were about five or six of these magnificent beasts–all sound asleep. What’s up with lions and sleeping?

Well, it turns out that lions sleep about 20 hours a day. They hunt, eat and sleep. That’s about it. Our driver got within five or six feet of the sleeping feline. Our guide shouts, the driver honks the horn and nothing. And then he does something totally unexpected. He throws water on the lion.

What? Excuse me? Well, the king of the jungle, who turned out to be a queen, sits up, yawns, and looks at us. Hmmm…this lion thing is not what it is cracked up to be. You would be tempted to think that every lion was like this lion. That would be a mistake.

You see, there are some nasty lions out there and they would like to invite you to lunch. Lions are vicious predators and will eat you given the chance. I’ve watched enough National Geographic shows to know that not all lions are created equal. I also know this. Not all lions live in Africa. In fact, there is one who lives close–very close. He doesn’t have a mane or a tail, but he does have an appetite. His name isn’t Mufasa or Simba. It is Satan.

The Bible, in 1 Peter 5:8, says this, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” On the safari we stayed alert looking for a lion. In life, we need to stay alert because the lion is looking for us. And guess what? He’s looking for lunch.

Peter said Satan is like a roaring lion. If you’ve studied lions a bit you know that a lion doesn’t roar when it’s stalking prey. A lion roars for two different reasons. One, he is declaring his dominance. He is claiming his territory. This is mine. He also roars to invite others to join his pride. The devil does both.

Satan is always roaring saying “this is mine and that is mine” but nothing is truly his. Nothing. It belongs to a much larger, much stronger Lion–the Lion of Judah. Satan is a liar–remember that. He wouldn’t know the truth if it stared him in the face. No pun intended.

He is also looking for others to join his pride. He is looking for people who are discouraged and disheartened with life and with God and is inviting them to join him. Joining him is a big mistake. He is a loser, and he knows it. That is why he is roaring so loudly. His time is limited, and he wants to take as many as he can with him.

Now if you are a believer, Satan can’t steal your salvation, but he can steal your peace, your character, your witness, your family, your integrity–well the list goes on and on. That is why Peter said, “Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.” Peter knew from experience just how good Satan is at taking what is not rightfully his.

Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.” That’s the enemy but Jesus wasn’t done speaking. He goes on to say, “I have come to give you life and life more abundantly.” He is saying, “if you trust Me, the Lion of Judah, you can rest in Me. I’m never asleep and I’m never outgunned. I’ve got this.” And He does. Bro. Dewayne

fear, life, prayer, pride, priorities, Scripture, Trials

Staying Off the Lunch Menu

Posted on January 2, 2024January 1, 2024 by Dewayne Taylor

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Years before the devastating attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, a young French daredevil captivated the world’s attention by walking a tightrope between the two towering buildings. The tightrope was suspended 1,350 feet above the ground. Unbelievably the man effortlessly traversed from one tower to the next while spectators below stood open mouthed staring at his daring feat.

Now advance the clock several months later. While practicing on a comparatively low wire in St. Petersburg, Florida, the same man experienced a fall of 30 feet and suffered multiple injuries. As he lay on the ground in pain and awaiting help, he pounded his fist, exclaiming, “I can’t believe it! I never fall!!!” I.Never.Fall.

Believe it or not, our most significant mistakes and failures occur not when we venture outside our comfort zone but when we are in a comfortable place. That might be why the Bible tells us in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.” The bottom line is that when we believe something could never happen to us or we become so accustomed to a certain thing, we tend to become complacent or sloppy, or both. We lower our guard and leave the door open or perhaps cracked allowing carelessness to lead us into falling, failing or stumbling.

This is why the truth in 1 Peter 5:8 is so vitally important. Peter encourages us to, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” Here’s the big truth—we are definitely on Satan’s lunch menu. He is just waiting for us to get complacent, or sloppy or both (yup…I wrote it twice on purpose) so he can gobble us up. When our guard goes down—the risk goes up—and he launches his attack.

Peter accurately portrays Satan as a lion. Lions don’t target animals prepared to run or fight; instead, they go after the unsuspecting and weak. Write this one down—don’t allow Satan to catch you off guard through carelessness. Remain vigilant in the Christian life, and you’ll be prepared to face challenges head-on. And that is a great way to begin a New Year—on guard, on alert and off the lunch menu. Need a little help with that? Well, your Dearest Daddy is a great lion hunter and He will be right by your side. Remember, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne

Family, fear, friends, gratitude, life, Scripture, Southern born, travel, Trials

The Devil in My Shoe

Posted on September 19, 2023September 18, 2023 by Dewayne Taylor

Be sober-minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

I guess just being careful wasn’t enough. During our recent journey south, my brother-in-law, JW, unexpectedly had a day off. Now you probably should understand that he is past the age when that should be normal, but he simply loves what he does and loves to work. For that reason, I wasn’t too surprised when he announced that on his day off—we were going to work.

He had a couple of projects he wanted done at the lake house where we were staying and one of them included putting down some landscaping fabric in preparation for some rock that he was going to lay around the fire pit area. No problem—well, almost. First, for various reasons (like flying in an airplane), we didn’t make it to the work site until 3:00 pm and trust me—September or not—it can still be hot in North Georgia—and it was.

The other problem involved heat of a different kind. At each end of the place where we were going to lay out the fabric, there were two very large Fire Ant beds. Now if you are not familiar with these demons from another very hot place, their bite is terrible. It will fester and can be painful and itchy for weeks after the attack. I determined then and there to stay far away from the two beds.

Well, for whatever reason, JW decided to attack the beds with his string trimmer (something that I would not recommend) which accomplished two things. First, it made the Fire Ants very mad and second, it scattered them from here to kingdom come. Well, even with all of that I still managed to stay away from these nasty insects and avoid their bite—or so I thought.

That night, I noticed my big toe on my foot was itchy and a little painful. Well, since I had good shoes on with tight fitting socks, I didn’t think a thing about it—until bedtime. I slipped off my shoes and socks and right there, against all odds was a Fire Ant bite in all its not-glory. Well, I had to scratch it and, well, it is still there almost a week later. My question was, “How in the world did that devil get in my shoe and through my sock?” I don’t know but I sure wish he hadn’t.

You see, sometimes you can do everything right and still end up with a devil in your shoe. Thinking back, maybe I should have spoken up and encouraged JW not to stir the pot with his string trimmer. Maybe I should have stayed even further away—like a mile or two. Like I said, I don’t know but this I do know. When the Fire Ants (or the devil) are around we have got to do everything, we can to stay clear. We may still get a bite but at least we would have done everything we could and should do to avoid their (or his) nasty bite.

I do think the next time I work with JW and there are Fire Ants involved, I believe I will consult an expert just to be sure I know everything I should know. And the next time I see the devil in my neighborhood, I believe I’ll get some advice from my Dearest Daddy. I’m sure He will give me some wise counsel—after all, as always, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne

fear, forgiveness, friends, gratitude, life, loving others, missions, Scripture, thankful, travel, Trials

Sleepy Lions

Posted on June 23, 2022 by Dewayne Taylor

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

We found him sleeping in the grass. Sound asleep. A while back I had the privilege of going to Uganda and visiting with Watoto ministries. The trip allowed me to see the incredible work of Watoto up front and personal. They work with orphaned babies and children as well as single mothers. They raise the kids to become Christian leaders and help the mothers provide for their families.

Part of the trip involved us going to Northern Uganda to see the work there. It also gave us the opportunity to take a one-day safari. A safari gives you the opportunity to see animals in the wild. You are on their turf and their terms. We saw a large variety of animals but there was one we all wanted to see. The lion. It is like the holy grail of safaris–to see the “king of the jungle.”

Our guide that day just happened to be one of park rangers, so he had access to areas others did not. So off we went. Before long there was a report of a lion sleeping in a tree. We went cross country and before long, bam, there was a lion…sound asleep. Well, it was pretty incredible–asleep or not. We snapped about a hundred pictures of our sleeping friend and moved on.

We drove for about 30 minutes and another report came of a group of lions about 50 yards off the road. Our guide, the ranger, told the driver to drive though the ditch and he did. Sure enough, there were the lions. There were about five or six of these magnificent beasts–all sound asleep. What is up with lions and sleeping?

Well, it turns out that lions sleep 20 hours a day. They hunt, eat and sleep. That’s about it. Our driver gets to within five or six feet of the sleeping feline. Our guide shouts, the driver honks the horn and nothing. And then he does something totally unexpected. He throws water on the lion.

What? Excuse me? Well, the king of the jungle, who turned out to be a queen, sits up, yawns and looks at us. Hmmm…this lion thing is not what it is cracked up to be. You would be tempted to think that every lion was like this lion. That would be a mistake.

You see, there are some nasty lions out there and they would like to invite you to lunch. Lions are vicious predators and will eat you. I’ve watched enough National Geographic shows to know that not all lions are created equal. I also know this. Not all lions live in Africa. In fact, there is one who lives close–very close. He doesn’t have a mane or a tail, but he does have an appetite. His name isn’t Mufasa or Simba. It is Satan.

The Bible, in 1 Peter 5:8, says this, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” On the safari we stayed alert looking for a lion. In this case we need to stay alert because the lion is looking for us. And guess what? He’s looking for lunch.

Peter said Satan is like a roaring lion. If you’ve studied lions a bit, you know that a lion doesn’t roar when its stalking prey. A lion roars for two different reasons. One, he is declaring his dominance. He is claiming his territory. This is mine. He also roars to invite others to join his pride. The devil does both.

Satan is always roaring saying “this is mine and that is mine” but nothing is truly his. Nothing. It belongs to a much larger, much stronger Lion–the Lion of Judea. Satan is a liar–remember that. He wouldn’t know the truth if it stared him in the face. No pun intended.

He is also looking for others to join his pride. He is looking for people who are discouraged and disheartened with life and with God and inviting them to join him. Joining him is a big mistake. He is a loser, and he knows it. That is why he is roaring so loudly. His time is limited and he wants to take as many with him as he can.

Jesus said in John 10:10 “The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy.” That’s the enemy but Jesus isn’t done speaking. He goes on to say, “I have come to give you life and life more abundantly.” He is saying, “if you trust Me, the Lion of Judah, you can rest in Me. I’m never asleep and I’m never out-gunned. I’ve got this.” And, He does. Bro. Dewayne

Family, fear, forgiveness, gratitude, life, Scripture, Southern born, thankful, Trials

The Antlion

Posted on February 7, 2022February 5, 2022 by Dewayne Taylor

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Where I lived growing up, I could go fishing and lion hunting every day. It was such an adventure living at 6008 Carlton Road. All the people who lived in the new subdivision being built across the street had no idea. Imagine…lion hunting and fishing every day, any day, and it wasn’t my imagination. You see, our house, like many older houses in northeast Florida was placed on blocks leaving a couple of feet of space between the house and the ground. And that space was where lions lived, and fishing happened.

No, I wasn’t hunting the king of the jungle and my fishing didn’t involve a pole or water…for that matter. Living under our house was the fierce larva of the predatory antlion…and they were just waiting for me to come along and challenge them. You see the antlion lives in and loves soft sand…just like we had under our house at 6008. They had a tricky way to catch their food. They would burrow in the sand and make a cone shaped pit and then hide in the bottom. Ants or other insects would come along, fall into the pit, and the antlion would reach up from beneath the sand and grab them with their long pinchers and…well, it was game over. Rarely did an insect survive the pit or antlion. And rarely did an antlion escape from Dewayne the lion hunter.

To catch an antlion, you simply found a spider web, and trust me there were plenty, and twist it into a sorta thread thingy. You would then attach that to a small stick and then…just go fishing. I would crawl under the porch (one of my favorite spots) and look for the cone shaped pits of the antlion. After finding a good one—the bigger the pit, the bigger the prey—I would take my stick and ever so gently, and slowly, drag the spider web around the bottom of the pit. The old antlion would think it was a poor trapped insect and latch hold of the spider web and I would “reel” him in by raising the stick and out would come the antlion. Now what’s really cool is that they would put up a pretty good fight. Some of these guys were a half-inch long so it was pretty exciting!

What was kind of funny was that even after I pulled the antlion from out of the sand, he just kept hanging on. I’m not sure if he was just really hungry or half blind but rare was the day that he just let go of the spider web. Now, the story does have a happy ending. This was strictly a “catch and release” thing. I would study him a while and let him dangle a while before putting him back in the sand. If you are a regular Grits reader you know not everyone got off so easy. Many a “love bug” and ant suffered very different fates.

I was always amazed how easily these fierce hunters became the hunted and fell for the same old trick but then I realized how often we do the same thing. Every day, or at least it seems that way, we are tempted to do something that just isn’t good for us or wise and yet time and again we fall for it. Whether it is a food choice, a decision to put something in our brain that doesn’t need to be there, or to say something that is covered with barbs, we simply seem to fall for it time and again. Like I was intentional in my fishing for antlions, the Bible tells us someone, something is intentionally tracking us…hunting for us.

It was Peter (not Pan but the guy in the Bible) who talked about the devil being like a “roaring lion” and his mission is simple…find lunch. Peter says that he prowls around “seeking someone to devour.” No, he doesn’t actually eat us, but he does devour our character, our integrity, our legacy, our marriages, our careers and that is just the short list. The good news is that there is a lion hunter who wants to be on our side…and His name is Jesus. Lions can be scary but the fear quickly flees with your Lion Hunter, never loses and never misses, walks by your side.

So, if you find yourself like the ant who wandered around under my house and slipped into the pit, just know help is nearby. Whisper a prayer or shout one out and the great Lion Hunter will be there. He is never far away and always one step ahead of the antlions in our life. Yup, you can rest assured, “He’s got this.” Bro. Dewayne

Family, fear, forgiveness, Grace, gratitude, life, loving others, missions, prayer, Scripture, sovereignty of God, thankful, travel, Trials, wisdom

Sleepy Lions

Posted on June 10, 2021June 9, 2021 by Dewayne Taylor

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

The Bible, in 1 Peter 5:8, says this, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.” On the safari we stayed alert looking for a lion. In this case we need to stay alert because the lion is looking for us. And guess what? He’s looking for lunch.