May 21, 2018 - - I Peter 5:8 Can you tame the lion of sin?

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
I Peter 5:8 NIV

While watching the T4G videos for 2018, I heard Matt Chandler give this great illustration. 
May of us treat sin as if it were a lion we have tamed. I was watching a TV show about animals that have attacked humans. There was a shampoo commercial where a woman was supposed to lie down on the back of a big male lion. You know, the kind with a huge mane. The lion attacked the woman. The trainer, in an interview afterwards, expressed surprise.
"Really man" Chandler exclaimed to his TV, "a lion is an apex predator! What were you expecting?"
Says the trainer to the camera: "I received this lion as a cub. Hand-feeding it, training it, working with it from early age."
Matt interjected "Really dude, it is a lion--all its instincts are honed to kill."
So it is with sin. Many of us toy with sin, we feed it, train it, tell it when to rest. We are shocked when it turns on us and consumes us. That is the nature of sin. We can NEVER control it. We are deluding ourselves if we let sin live.
[I'll include the link to Matt Chandler's talk.]
We read "set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct." 
I Peter 1:13-15 ESV
At the cost of Jesus' blood, we are the property of God. By the power of the Spirit we are given the great task of slaying sin and rooting out evil and living in holiness, wholly dedicated to the glory of God. There is no greater adventure.

Our lives pass quickly, O LORD, but Your Word remains forever. As the people chosen in Christ and made holy by Your Spirit, forgive us for the times we have toyed with sin or attempted merely to control or tame it by our own power. As sin wages war against our soul, help us to gain the victory in Christ Jesus, the Captain of our Salvation. May the world around us see our good deeds and glorify God~in Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.

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