Overcoming Our Enemies

 

Our greatest enemies are the ones we must fight from within. We battle the World, the Flesh, and the Devil. We have three powerful enemies that wage war against us in our attempt to live the Christian life.

The world is filled with powerful minefields that can sabotage our lives. James writes, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4). We are to beware of this world and to understand that it is not our friend but our enemy.

Our second powerful enemy is ourselves. This refers to the flesh as our sinful nature that is constantly tempting us and pulling us in the wrong direction. We are to beware of our flesh. James explains, “But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” James 1:14-15).

Our third enemy is Satan. He is not omniscient nor omnipresent, and neither is he omnipotent; however, he is certainly powerful enough to trap us if we are not relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. Peter warns, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8).

The roadblocks that the world, the flesh, and the Devil put in our path are many, but here are some of the most common. Fear, hopelessness, guilt, shame, and regret.

Fear inhibits our lives and impedes our ability to live for God. It ties us up, so we cannot believe we will succeed. When the ten spies gave their reports about the Promised Land, ten of them were overwhelmed with fear. They made the people’s hearts melt with fear (Deuteronomy 1:28). Joshua and Caleb had different spirits because they trusted in the Lord and were fearless.

Hopelessness is the typical result of being beaten down by the world, the flesh, and the Devil. It is when you feel defeated and have no way out. That is a lie, of course, but your mind tells you it is true. When Hagar ran away from her mistress, Sarai, she found herself in a hopeless situation. The Lord spoke to her and gave her hope.  She said, “You are the God who sees me,” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me” (Genesis 16:13).

Shame and guilt run together. The antidote for overcoming guilt and shame is forgiveness. God’s wonderful gift of forgiveness cleanses away all shame and guilt. God’s forgiveness removes our sin as far as the East is from the West (Ps 103:12.

Finally, regret is a result of feeling like your life has been wasted. Joel 2:25-27 states that God can restore what has been lost. There is no regret when we trust God, no matter what has happened in our lives. The Holy Spirit wants to help you subdue your enemies.

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law. s and desires.

David’s Prayer

King David wanted to build a House for the Lord. The Ark of the Covenant was housed in a Tent, and David wanted a more dignified place for it. David discussed his thoughts with Nathan, the prophet, and Nathan affirmed David’s desire. However, during the night, the Lord spoke to Nathan and gave him a message for David. The next day, the prophet delivered the message. The message was so overwhelming that David went into the tent of the Lord and simply sat before the Lord (2 Samuel 7:18). David sat before the Lord as a recognition that God is God. Even before we hear the words of his prayer, we can see something of the impact the word of the Lord had on the king.

David’s prayer begins, “Who am I, Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” (2 Sam 7:18). The Lord had taken him from being a humble shepherd with his father’s sheep to being the king over his people. The Lord had been with him and had delivered him from his enemies. David’s response was: “Who am I that you should do all that for me?” This should always be our attitude of humility for what the Lord has done for us.

John Newton’s hymn is the most well-known in the world, and it begins in much the same way: “Amazing Grace!” Here are some of the words: “How sweet the sound,  That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found,  Was blind, but now I see.”

David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel.” That was the start of it. But David thought that to be a small thing in comparison to what the Lord’s promise to him was now.

What the Lord had now “brought about” was to speak his promise. This involved “a great name” for David and a blessing for mankind. David’s knowledge was caused by the greatness of God’s act of revelation.” Nathan told David that the Lord would establish his house, and it would endure forever. David’s response was, “How great you are, Sovereign Lord!” David continued, “There is no one like you, and there is no God but you, as we have heard with our own ears” (2 Sam 7:22). David’s conclusion of who and what God had done was, “You are great, O Lord God.” 

David’s prayer was shaped by his praise. “Do as You Have promised” (2 Sam 7:25). This is what we pray when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Your will be done.” When we don’t know what to pray, pray “Your will be done” (Matt 6:10) — “Do as you have promised.”

The Unwilling Prophet

Jonah is one of the most interesting prophets in the Bible. This little ancient book is more than a history lesson; it is more like a mirror in which we can each see ourselves. Jonah most likely wrote this book after everything had transpired. The book could be called “The Confessions of a Missionary.” This book shows the great contrast between God’s greatness and man’s smallness.

God told him to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but he did not want to do that. Instead, he bought passage on a ship bound for Tarshish—the opposite direction. He did not want to go to Nineveh, and he did not want to preach to them. Likely, Jonah had negative experiences with these people, or he knew of them and how bad they were. He probably felt his prejudice against his enemies was justified. The Assyrians were famous for their cruelty to the people they conquered.

It is not unlike today when we harbor prejudice for some hurt that occurred to us years ago, so we are justified today. Jonah seems to have had no trouble disobeying God, so strong were his feelings against the Ninevites.

Jonah found himself in a horrific storm, and all on board were fearful of their lives, but Jonah was in a deep sleep. The captain woke him and asked, “Who are you, and where do you come from? Why are you not calling on your gods to save us, as all the others are?” Jonah told them that he served the living God, but to calm the storm, they would need to throw him overboard. That is how much Jonah hated the Ninevites. He would rather die than see them repent. The greatest deterrent to Christianity is the incongruence of Christians. When we don’t live up to what we preach. He said that he worshipped the God of heaven who made land and sea and everything else, but at the same time, he was running away from the same God.

He admits that the storm is his fault, and they should throw him overboard if they want to save themselves. He is running from God because he knows God might forgive his enemies, and he can’t have that. He did not even think about repentance but preferred to die rather than go to Nineveh. God in mercy prepared a whale to be at the right spot at the right moment to catch Jonah and save his life. We know Jonah wrote the book because he gives us his prayer from inside the whale: “In my distress I called to the Lord, and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help, and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me; all your waves and breakers swept over me” (Jonah 2:1-4).

In this moment, God answered Jonah, and Jonah could distinguish what was real from what was not: “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs” (Jonah 2:8).  If we put our confidence in anything other than God, He will not give his grace to us. These are the deciding moments of our lives when we realize that hanging onto worthless idols causes us to forfeit God’s grace.

Humility Vs. Pride

 Everyone deals with disaster in different ways. Some people go into denial. They try to block out what happened as protectively as possible so as not to face the overwhelming emotions of the situation and the sense of failure. Others get angry and find someone or something to blame for what happened, while others are overwhelmed with sadness.

David felt all these emotions after his first attempt to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem after it had lain in obscurity for seventy years. Still, unfortunately, his attempt was unsuccessful (1 Samuel 6). The disaster at the first attempt to retrieve the ark took the life of one man as the anger of the Lord broke out against Uzzah for touching the ark. David ceased his efforts to bring the ark to Jerusalem at this point and left it at the house of a foreigner. The ark remained at the home of Obed-edom for three months.

God blessed the house of Obed-edom because the ark was there. This inspired David to try again. On the second attempt to retrieve the ark, no cart was used to transport the ark. Instead, the Levites carried the ark. The presumption of the earlier attempt is gone. They did their homework on how to move the ark. This time, they moved forward with extreme caution. After six steps, the procession stopped and offered a sacrifice. David was dancing “before the LORD with all his might (2 Sam 6:14).

The trappings of pomp and dignity were absent. Displays of power and prestige were nowhere to be seen. This was not about David. “David danced before the LORD”. It was the joy of humility; there were no royal robes, no encouragement for the crowd to cheer or bow to David. Instead, “David wore an ordinary linen ephod”. It was not the trappings of greatness.

As this extraordinary procession approached the city, Michal, David’s wife, looked out the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord. She despised him (2 Samuel 6:16). Michal did not like what she saw. Michal is identified not as “the wife of David” but as “the daughter of Saul.” To her, it was undignified. No king should be acting like this before his people. Where was the royal dignity? Michal saw his conduct as unbecoming of a king. “She despised him in her heart”.

The dignity, power, and splendor of the King were too important to the daughter of Saul. David had put aside these things, joyfully humbling himself “before the LORD.” Saul’s daughter could not accept this. To her, it was simply uncouth. David had abandoned his royal dignity “before the LORD” as an act of glad humility. He knew who was the real King. David was making himself nothing. He was not counting his own dignity as something to protect.  Michal was embarrassed. David’s humility brought him joy, while Michal’s pride brought her misery and pain.