8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith. 1 Peter 5:8-9

The Apostle Peter compares the devil to a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. If you’ve ever watched a nature documentary then you know how lions hunt. If lions are hunting a herd of wildebeests, the wildebeests are safe if they stay in the herd. They’re faster than the lion, stronger when they fight together and there are simply more of them.

A hunting lion will never charge directly into the the middle of the herd. He doesn’t want to attack the herd. There’s too much strength in numbers. He’s looking for one. If he can find one wildebeest that strays from the group: the young, the old, the sick, or just one that isn’t paying attention. If he can isolate one wildebeest, then one-on-one the wildebeest doesn’t stand a chance.

That’s Satan’s strategy. When we view Christianity as an individual faith, that we’re supposed to live and fight on our own, we’re playing directly into his hands. Our enemy wants us on our own. If Satan can isolate us from community, he wins. If he can convince us to keep our addictions in the dark and a secret from those around us, he wins. He knows he’s not strong enough to take on the entire herd, to take on a church united. So he’ll try and pick us off one by one. That’s the first way Satan attacks us: he isolates us from the herd, from biblical community.

Lions have been hunting the same way for a thousand years. They don’t need to get creative. Lions will isolate one animal from the pack, sink it’s jaws around the animal’s throat, and hold on until the animal bleeds it. That’s it, every time.

Satan doesn’t have to get creative when he attacks you, because he knows what works. Satan is going to try and isolate you from community, get you on your own, find that one foothold, that one temptation, that one addiction, clamp his jaws around you and not let go until you spiritually bleed out. That’s the second way Satan attacks: he clamps his jaws around your throat with that one besetting sin and waits until you bleed out.

So when Christians walk away from church, when they refuse to live in community, when they can’t be bothered to join a small group and be transparent and actually do life together, that’s playing straight into the enemy’s hands. The reason that community is so vital to a church is because it fights against Satan’s main method of attack: isolation. If Satan can emotionally, mentally, spiritually isolate you from other believers and take you on one-on-one, he’ll win, every time.

So why do we need to do life together with other believers? Because on our own, we don’t stand a chance. But together, we will always be victorious. Notice in Scripture that the Bible never says to flee the devil. The Bible says to flee temptation, but always commands the church to resist the devil. To fight back. Why? Because when we fight together, we are unstoppable. We are more than conquerors, and the enemy doesn’t stand a chance.

So how do you counter Satan’s main attacks against you?

• Do life in community with other believers.
• Cultivate transparency and get help from others.

Life is too short and you’re simply not strong enough to do life on your own. Do life together. Fight together. Be victorious together.