Skip to main content

Know Your Enemies

            For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (I John 2:16)

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. (I Corinthians 13:13)

I don’t know if the past few days have helped you set any goals for next year, but what came to mind today is that along with setting goals, we need to consider where we are and keep in mind what is likely to get in the way of reaching them.

One tool to help with that is what’s called a SWOT (not SWAT) Analysis:

·                     Strengths: characteristics you have that give it an advantage in reaching the goal.

·                     Weaknesses: characteristics you have that give you a disadvantage in reaching the goal.

·                     Opportunities: elements in the environment you could exploit to its advantage.

·                     Threats: elements in the environment that could cause trouble for you in reaching your goal.

Doing a SWOT analysis will help you prepare to go after your goals. Considering the passages above provides additional areas for consideration. First, is the goal based on lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, or a boastful pride of life? If not, are there lusts of the flesh or eyes or boastful pride of life that are likely to get in the way? How can faith, hope, or love help you reach the goal? Does the goal involve growing in faith, hope, or love?

And, finally, one of the first principles of battle is to know your enemies. With what rulers, powers, world forces, and spiritual forces might you have to do battle? Similarly, you should know your friends. To what rulers, powers, world forces and spiritual forces can you turn for help?

I know this sounds like a lot of work – and it’s work that I need to do, too. But giving  your self, your situation, and your goals serious thought will help you reach them.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The List

              Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,   through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;   perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5)           Think about it. We have been justified. At least, we could be justified if we stopped insisting that our justification be based on our merits. We have peace with God, or could have peace if we stopped throwing temper tantrums. We have gained access into grace i...
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

Listen To Him

              The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him . (Deuteronomy 18:15)           Today, we switch from Jesus’ claims of “I am” to prophecies made about Him. My Bible platform is starting in Deuteronomy. I’d start in Genesis, where we would learn that the one who would save us would be a descendant of Eve (Genesis 3:15), of Noah (by default), Abram and Sara(Genesis 12:1-3). Isaac (Genesis 17:19), Jacob (Genesis 25:23), Judah (Genesis 29:8), and David (II Samuel 7:12-16). There were also references to a new covenant (Jer. 31:31-34; Ezek. 36:22-32). In addition, there were prophecies about when and where the prophet/Messiah would be born and what would happen to him.           Of course, naysayers will claim that Jesus’ life was retrofitted or reverse enginee...
Post a Comment
Read more