Tag: enemy

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Dining in the Presence of the Enemy

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and faithful love will pursue me all my days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD as long as I live. —Psalm 23:5–6

My family watched professional wrestling when I was a kid. In the mid-1980s, professional wrestling was very localized. I was born in the South, so a lot of the wrestlers I grew up liking were from places like Atlanta, Georgia, or Charlotte, North Carolina. One of the things I loved about professional wrestling was the way the promoters wrote good storylines. The promoters behind the sport came up with colorful characters and plots that made us enjoy the good guys and dislike the bad guys. Every Saturday night, my family gathered around our television to watch the world of good-versus-evil come to life in a scripted display of athleticism and showmanship. We cheered on our favorites and shook our fists at the bad guys.

One of the things I’ve noticed about worry is that it makes everything and everyone seem like the bad guy. As I’ve mentioned, anxiety makes circumstances and situations seem more significant than they are. Worry also can cause conditions, events, and often people look like the enemy. Anxiety and fear often will make us paranoid, making us believe everyone is out to get us. Stress has a way of making everyone and everything the enemy.

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Three Enemies Every Christian Faces – Part 3

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of  this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body.” Ephesians 2:1-3a

The Puritan author and theologian John Owen understood the battle of the flesh and the sin that so easily entangles. Owens pens the following in his classic work, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, “Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work; be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Owens provides two helpful insights about the third enemy Christians face, which is the flesh.

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Three Enemies Every Christian Faces — Part 2

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body.” Ephesians 2:1-3a

As Christians, we are in a constant battle with the three enemies, the world, the Devil, and the flesh. So, how do we deal with the onslaught of temptation, which can cripple the walk of even the most faithful disciple and earnest follower of Jesus? Often these temptations come from sinful inclinations flowing from wicked and deceptive hearts. James writes the following to address our unkept desires, which burn within us, igniting the fires of sin. “What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?” (James 4:1). James rightly attests that we face a significant enemy in our self-destructive patterns as we wrestle with the passions and sin that reside within every man. Yet, there are other forces at work within the world in which we live. 

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