The Heart of a Lion

"The wicked flee when no one is pursuing. But the righteous are bold as a lion." Pr. 28:1

When I enrolled in seminary in Ft. Worth in the fall of 1974, I didn't have a great track record of lionhearted living. I have to admit, I spent the first semester sitting in classes looking over my shoulder. I just knew someone was going to walk into class, ask me to step outside, and tell me the admissions office had made a terrible mistake. No one ever came, so I stuck it out. I was more afraid to quit than anything else. If I had anywhere else to go, I might have run there.

My first staff position was another stretch. I was given some on the job training by another member of the staff who had a worse background than mine. His professional pedigree included some gang activity that had interrupted his education. When God got hold of his life he went back and graduated from high school at 21. We were both amazed at where we were compared to where we had been.

One day while visiting the hospitals we entered one man's room, but found him in a deep sleep. We prayed silently, and in order to get credit for the visit, we decided to leave a note. You preachers know what I'm talking about. The Lone Ranger left a silver bullet, and preachers leave cards. We were in the process of writing a note on the back of our freshly printed business cards when he suddenly sat up in bed and shouted. We threw our cards in the air, ran from the room and raced down the hall to the elevator. When we finally stopped we were breathless and heaving for air. We laughed at each other and between gasps for air screamed, "Why did we run? We didn't do anything wrong." We marked it down as unconfessed sin in our lives. No, we didn't' go back...ever!

Once a month for the past 20 years I have read Proverbs 28:1 and I still think about that hospital visit. Since that day I have become more and more convinced that my friend and I were probably closer to the truth than we knew.

A wicked person is a crooked person. The word for a wayward person in our culture is...crook. They do not walk a straight path, but willfully and regularly choose to wander off the right path. Their "fight or flight" survival instincts kick in when they even suspect someone may be about to catch them in the act. They flee further away from the light whenever they hear a twig snap in the dark.

The righteous person is "confident" or as "bold as a lion." Their confidence is not in themselves, but in the knowledge that what has been wrong in their lives has been declared right by a Sovereign God. They are not victims of imaginary fears, but they are victors over a real adversary.


"Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour...but resist him firm in your faith." I Peter 5:8-9


Look carefully at Proverbs and I Peter. They say, "the righteous are as bold as a lion," and "the devil prowls about like a roaring lion." Who has the heart of a lion here?

The devil is a transliteration of the Greek word "diabolos." The word is a combination of, "dia," a preposition and therefore a moving target that I could never really hit in Greek class. The other is "bolos" rooted in the verb "to throw." It literally means to throw across or to mark through. It has come to mean "the slanderer" or "the accuser." The enemy is always trying to throw an accusation against the character and confidence of a Christ follower to see if it will stick.

The righteous are confident in the grace of God. They know that whatever Sovereign God has declared right cannot be made wrong. They have nothing to fear from an accusation made by a someone parading around in a lion suit.

One night in East Africa, I was invited to dinner by some friends. After the meal we went out in the garden of the restaurant and sat in the dark enjoying the cool of the evening and the magnificent display of stars. Suddenly, from behind the hedge a lion's roar erupted and tore through the still of the night like the roar of a jet engine. I jumped up, and was prepared to bolt. I was like a man with one foot nailed to the floor. I was disoriented and didn't know which way to run. My two friends were on the ground laughing at me. I had been set up. They eventually calmed down enough to coax me to take a look behind the hedge. What I saw I have never forgotten. It was a huge male lion roaring at the moon from behind a cyclone fence. He was loud, but he was caged. He was real, but he was not free. He could intimidate me but he could not touch me. He was alive, but not so well. The more I stood my ground, the less I feared him. I could have foolishly climbed inside his prison, and paid for my waywardness, but if I stood my ground I not be harmed by his threatening roar.

Christ followers must resist the urge to run when they hear the "lion-like"roar in the night. Proverbs and I Peter are potent reminders that God's offspring possess the heart of The Lion of Judah. When Winston Churchill was complimented on his ability to rally the British people during the dark days of WW II, he responded by crediting the courage of the lionhearted people of his nation. He said, "I was not the lion, but it fell to me to give the lion's roar." That inspires me to keep...

Resisting and Roaring,

GMillerLight4U