My Own Worst Enemy

Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. James 1: 16-17

Sometimes in life we encounter enemies that just won’t go away. We name them. We curse them and then eventually we attempt to deal with them. We can fight or we can walk away. We can choose to have nothing to do with that enemy, whether it is a thing or a person, unless of course, we are our own worst enemy. I have heard the expression used in various ways, “we have met the enemy and they is us.” At one time I even knew where that originated but that isn’t important here. What is important is freedom. I want to be free from being my own worst enemy, causing my own nightmares and producing spoiled fruit. It is time for me to live fully under the grace of God, in complete recognition that in spite of what the world would have me believe, I am royalty.

The problem is not my parentage. How can it be? I am the adopted daughter of the King, not of a king but THE KING. Why can I come and go as I please? I’ll tell you why, my Abba owns this place. He designed it. He built it and he shares it with me. To walk around with my head down or living in some faulty self-constructed pseudo castle is foolish. At risk of getting yelled at by my grandbabies I’ll say it in stronger terms; it’s stupid. (Hear a small voice saying, “bad word!”)
The body I have, the life I have, the people who inhabit it, the job I do, the clothes I wear, the food I eat, the ability to think and reason, to walk and talk, to laugh, to cry, etc. etc. are all gifts from the Father of heavenly lights. He gives them to me and he gives them to you too. He will give us pure freedom and the ability to walk in it if we understand that he really does know what is best and give him control.

To stay trapped in a false sense of self, a belief that I am not who I am supposed to be, or that I am useless, is beyond stupid. It is sinful. It is also dangerous and self-defeating. As long as I allow myself to be my own worst enemy I will never be of much use to God. How can he work through me when I won’t get out of the way?

Each week in our church we are prompted to pray for an enemy. Unfortunately for the last few months the same face came to mind with amazing alacrity. This week I will pray for my real enemy. That face looks a lot like the one I saw in the mirror this morning. Maybe that is true for you. If it is don’t let it continue. Open yourself to God’s healing love and ignore the lies of an enemy standing at your door.

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