Lionhearted Faith

O LORD, do not be far from Me. . . . Save me from the lion’s mouth.

Psalm 22:19, 21

We’d be surprised to hear that a lion was loose in downtown Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. When we think of lions, we think of Africa. Yet in Bible times, the land of Israel was filled with lions. In fact, the Bible contains several stories about them. There’s Samson, who killed a lion with his bare hands. And David, who as a shepherd boy, killed a lion that threatened his sheep. And, of course, the prophet Daniel was thrown into a den of lions.

Among the 150 references to lions in the Bible, two verses stand in stark contrast to each other. In 1 Peter 5:8, Satan is described as a lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. But he meets his match in Revelation 5:5, where Jesus is called the “Lion of the tribe of Judah.”

When we feel the devil after us, we need to remember that we can’t fight him off on our own any more than we could defend ourselves from an attacking lion. But we have a Lion on our side. Jesus is with us! That gives us a Lion’s share of assurance.

“Don’t you mind him,” said Puddleglum. “There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan.”

FROM C. S. LEWIS’S THE SILVER CHAIR