David Barton is founder and president of WallBuilders, a national pro-family organization that presents America’s forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious, and constitutional heritage. This article is adapted from his sermon, “Run to the Roar.”

For a lot of Christians, this is a time of confusion. Things didn’t turn out the way people thought, or believed, or even the way we had been praying.

Does that mean God screwed up? No. We just need to change our thinking.

This is a good wake up call for the church, because it’s time for a shift for all Christians.

Lions on the Prowl

Let’s look at the lion. The Bible has a lot to say about lions and there is a lot we can learn from them.

Lions are called the “king of beasts” because they are fearsome and awesome. When they roar, everybody else trembles – it gets the attention of everything else that’s out there.

Lions live in African savannas and it’s interesting to see how they use the land and atmosphere around them. When a lion roars, it can be heard all across the savanna – up to five miles away. The roar has significance for what lions do with their prey.

When you look at lions, each one of them has a specific duty. The male lion will stand on one end of the savanna plain and the female lions will be at the other end. The reason they do that is because male lions are not good hunters – the females are the hunters.

The females are quick and agile, but they don’t make any noise. It’s the male who makes all the noise, and all the other animals are scared of him. When he starts roaring, the other animals start running away from the roar and right into the teeth of the female lions who aren’t making any noise. That’s how lions kill their prey.

It’s a great way for the lions to hunt, because the other animals don’t have a clue.

Don’t Run Away!

While lions are dangerous, the safest place is actually to run to the roar. It is counterintuitive to the way we think, but we have to realize the male lion – the one roaring – is actually the slowest of the pride. While they are dangerous, your best opportunity to live is to run to the roar.

Consider the scripture that says Satan is “as a roaring lion” (1 Pet. 5:8). The best thing to do is to run to the roar.

The problem is we often think of ourselves as lambs, but scripture tells us in Proverbs 23:7 that “as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” If you start thinking like a lamb, you’ll start acting like a lamb.

There is another scripture that says, “the righteous are as bold as a lion” (Prov. 28:1). If you start thinking like a lion, you’ll start acting like a lion.

The church has not been offensive minded, we’ve been defensive minded. When something comes at us, we’ll stand and fight, but actually the best defense is a good offense.

If Christians are going to do what God wants for the church, the state, and the nation, we’re going to have to run to the roar. We’ve been playing defense for about 40 years and we have seen our country slowly taken from us.

Getting Involved Locally

What you have to start with is a local focus. We don’t win from the top down, but rather from the bottom up.

In the Revolutionary War, pastors rallied churches in town after town to fight the British. A series of local victories – Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill – paved the way for a national victory.

Unfortunately, we have been looking for a national victory, and we need to change our thinking. It’s the local victories – school boards, cities, townships – that will lead to a national victory.

Where are the battles you can engage right here? Where can you run to the roar?

We’ve seen so much change in the first few months of a new administration that is pro-abortion and pro-LGBTQ while free-speech rights are under attack. So many people are trying to just hunker down and stay safe, but now is when we need to run to the roar.

For the sake of biblical truth and America, now is not the time to run away from the sound of battle. As Christians, we need to run to it!

Learn More

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