This is an “off the wall” topic but it settled in me this morning and has me thinking. While I don’t profess to have enemies. If I take a closer examination of certain attitudes, there is work to be done. Sigh…. There is always something to work on, but that is life.
Last Saturday I moved wrong and pulled something in my lower back. Sunday morning I watched church livestream from the church Facebook page, with pillows prompted up behind me. The service is closed captioned on the Facebook page so I zoomed in on the captioning, attempting to follow with what I was hearing with my cochlear implant. All went reasonably well until the caption froze. It froze on the word “Let’s” and that word stayed on the screen for the remainder of the service. I shifted approaches and zoomed in on Pastors face, trying to lip read him and catching a few clues when the camera was on the sign language interpreter. So I got the first half of the service but not so much the second half. At the end of the service, a notification dropped in from the Bible App. A man from church had posted his notes from the sermon. God sent Sergeant D’s notes to the rescue. The man can take some GREAT sermon notes. I am thankful as they filled in a lot of “blanks” of things I missed. Pastor talked about Godliness. One thing in the notes that “hit home” was we should treat people with the same attitude that we treat Jesus! Whoa! Do I do that? I would like to say yes, but truth be told, my attitude towards some situations and irritations fall short. Feeling conviction, I had to address and confess of this to the Lord. Which brings me to my title, “Who is your enemy?”
You might think of enemies as in war, people who want to harm you, people who want to exclude you, people who just “rub you the wrong way”, people with opposing beliefs, people with opposing political views, and the list goes on. But really, who is the enemy? I will tell you it is not the person with the attitude or the person who is being harsh or offensive in some way. The enemy is the devil, plain and simple. Ephesians 6:12 says, “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”( NLT)
I failed a test a couple of weeks ago. I usually don’t let people bother me and simply smile and carry on but….. A nice new gym recently opened near us. My husband Ron and son Joshua both anticipated the opening and joined it. I go to a smaller gym that is also close by. Ron said I could get a one time free trial at the new gym, so I agreed to go check it out. The girl who was working the front desk was rather rude and would not let me in. She said if I came in with Ron I would have to pay $15! I don’t pay that for a full month at the gym I belong to. Side note, they do give out cards for a free one day pass to try the gym, she was just not being nice. Ron asked to speak to the manager and she said she was the manager. I said, “forget it” and we left. Fast forward a few days, someone had given Ron a free pass for me and talked me into going again. We walked in and the same girl was at the desk and looked surprised to see us back. She then asked for my id, which I did not have. I don’t drive and can’t remember the last time I had to show my id. She was unwavering so we went home to get my id. Seriously…. All this to just try a gym! I told Ron that she would run off new business if she was rude to people like she was to me. I was ticked off. Ron told me to just get my id and we would go back but honestly a business is as welcoming as the people who greet you. We went back with my id and another girl was at the front desk. However, the rude girl did come up once again. I guess she thought we were a problem. Wow! Really? Ron is a paying member. I wanted to give her a piece of my mind, but Ron was nudging me in the leg. I looked at the rude girl and said, “I brought my id and by the way, Kindness is a good business policy”.
I would never think of this girl as an enemy but the way she treated me brought out an unpleasant side of me. That so rarely happens but I realize my attitude was not right even if she was rude. It shouldn’t have gotten to me the way it did. I confessed to the Lord, “I failed that one and I’m sorry.”
The best way to avoid such responses is to be persistent in prayer. I should have offered up a prayer asking God to help me respond in a way that glorified Him. Maybe she was having a bad day/week/month/year. Who knows! The fact remains, no matter how people are towards us, we can choose to respond with the same attitude we would have towards Jesus. The only way we can do that is by having a strong prayer life and actively pursuing God in everything. As the following verse says, we can dress ourselves in humility. 1 Peter 5:5 says “In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.””( NLT) Here’s a couple more verses for you. “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.” 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NLT)
Let’s choose to respond in love. Start your day in prayer and keep your focus on Jesus. He will get you through whatever comes your way this week. When you fall short, confess, repent and Press on. God bless you all!
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