Remember Who the Real Enemy Is

“To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ:  Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.” Jude 1:1

Father, I thank you that the Deeper Still team is called, sanctified in You and preserved in Jesus Christ.  I pray for mercy, peace, and love to be multiplied to the Deeper Still team.  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

If you’ve seen the movie, Catching Fire, you are familiar with the second to last final scene where Katniss Everdeen points her bow and arrow at Finnick.  Her heart is pounding, sweat is pouring.  She is panicked as her psyche assesses the situation.  Finnick, in a defining moment, knowing his life is on the line, shouts the memorable words, “Remember who the real enemy is!”

We too at times may get confused about who our real enemy is.  When we forget who we are truly fighting, we can feel threatened by others in our arena.

 

Ephesians 6:12 admonishes this warning, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

This is God’s way of saying, “Remember who the real enemy is!”

 

There are times when my husband and I may get into a little…ahem… disagreement.  Many times we are more prone to these so called “disagreements” right before a retreat.  I now know that this is a scheme of the enemy and to treat it as such.  My husband is not my enemy. 

When people say things that bump into our happy, rub us the wrong way, or are rude, we need to be alert to the fact that there is a real enemy out there and the clerk at Walmart is not him.

 

We have no business pointing our arrows at fake foes.

In ministry, there are opportunities to get offended.  There may be personality clashes.  We are only human beings on assignment to do the Lord’s work.   It is especially important to remember there is an enemy who would love to bring havoc on the mission field.  We need to keep our shields up and our own arrows down.   There are enough arrows from the enemy without other arrows being slung around. 

People are not our enemy.  Our enemy is not flesh and blood. 

In the movie, Katniss, in a moment of decisiveness, points her arrow away from Finnick.  She then purposely aims at the sky and releases with resolve.  She remembered who the real enemy was. 

Our arrows are prayers aimed to the heavens.  Those arrows are poison to the plots of evil. 

I pray we will remember daily who the real enemy is and aim our arrows at the right target.