Know your enemy
Lead me to the towering rock of safety, for you are my safe refuge, a fortress where my enemies cannot reach me.
Psalm 61:2b-3 NLT
An enemy is defined as “a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something”. When I think of enemies I instinctively focus on external threats. To address these I must remain vigilant and take action to protect myself and my interests. Yet, what of those internal enemies that seek to rob me of my love and inheritance in Christ? If God is my source of safety, my refuge, why would I engage with anything that might draw me from that safe environment and risk injury, or worse?
When forced to face the biggest challenge of my life, a family crisis, I was unprepared. I had the language and the CV of a Christian. What I lacked was inner resolve and confidence in God’s will and way. I couldn’t accept that “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28, NKJV). I discovered my greatest enemies were my emotions and thoughts. They gave rise to unacceptable behaviours that offered little expression of God’s character. What had I been doing for the first 20 years of my Christian life? Certainly not developing as a disciple.
I didn’t know how to take hold of God and allow the Spirit to bring order to that chaos. So began a journey that has occupied me for the last 30 years. I had to find the fortress of my own heart, created by God, the true source of my spiritual life. Then I had to turn it into my fortress not to repel enemies, but to transform my innermost character into that which was truly submitted and obedient to God. As Jesus said, it’s not what goes into a person, but what comes from a person that counts (see Matthew 15:11). This is the greatest revelation and the hardest fought battle of my life. Moving from defending myself from apparent external threats to surrendering my natural appetites to God and becoming more of the person he originally intended.
QUESTION
How well are you combating the enemy within?
PRAYER
You are “my fortress and my deliverer” (2 Samuel 22:2, NIV), I run to you for protection from all threats. Save me and strengthen me to “fight the good fight” (1 Timothy 6:12) and be victorious by the power of your Spirit.