Skip to main content

Our Own Worst Enemies

Lord, how many are y foes! How many rise up against me! Many are saying, "God will not deliver him." But you, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high. I call out to the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain. I lie and sleep; I wake again, because the LORD sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands assail me on every side. Arise, LORD! Deliver me, my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. From the LORD comes deliverance. My your blessing be on your people (Psalm 3).
           This morning, my sister mentioned finding comfort in the Psalms, and I decided she was right. That’s probably what I need right now. What I’m finding in the first few psalms, however, is that when the psalmist wrote of troubles, he was facing enemies, flesh-and-blood enemies who wanted to destroy him. I can’t relate. No one is after me with a gun. I can’t even really claim that the devil is out to get me. It doesn’t seem to me that either Dad or I are of enough spiritual importance to earn the enmity of the devil. I could be wrong, but my enemies at the moment all seem to come under the category of “life” and “circumstances.”
          It seems to me that the enemy who is saying “God will not deliver her” is me. My situation is my cross to bear, my burden, and I believe that it is by going through it, with all of its pain, that I will be made better, stronger, purer…. It will all work together for good, as Romans 8:28 promises, but that doesn’t make all that ends up working together for good, good. It seems to me I’m in a Kobayashi Maru scenario, there is no way to win, or if there is, it involves cheating and it seems to me that while other people cheat as easily as they breathe, I am so bad at it that there’s no use trying.
         And yet, God is the same God. He is still good. He hasn’t changed, and so, somehow, He is a shield around me. He is my glory. He is the One who lifts my head high. He does answer from His holy mountain. That doesn’t mean I can see the answers, but that they are either here or on the way. Perhaps it’s my jaw that needs to be stricken, and my teeth that need to be broken (I hope not, I don’t have dental insurance!) Perhaps I need to shut my mouth and wait to see what He does. Not quite sure how to do that. I’m too busy being angry and being foolish (remember Pity The Fool?)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more