⁸Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.¹⁰And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

COMMENTARY:

From time to time each and everyone of us falls victim to oppression from evil.  Sometimes this oppression manifests itself in the form of anger caused by fear of the unknown future in these unsteady times, sometimes the oppression comes from a society that has grown increasingly oriented to secular pursuits such as consumptionism and materialism.  In the case of the latter, the jealously and greed of others oft times places us in situations that are out of our control, but how we respond or interact with these situations is at our discretion – we can choose to or choose not to allow these forms of oppression influence our thinking and personal actions or reactions.

Remember these words of the apostle Peter; Be self-controlled and alert. ….. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings (that you are)