The Enemy is closing in...

The Enemy is closing in. All around me I can feel its icy chill slowly numbing my bones. All around me its slender fingers drain the life out of me. All around me it presses in.

                I don’t know about you, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed. Like a soldier who feels fatigue, I occasional tire of this life. It seems as if I’m in a never ending battle. Every day I march on and on but never seem to get any closer to victory. It’s like the enemy is forever elusive and just one step ahead. Now I don’t mean to come off as depressed or anything near that extent, I merely just want to give insight into the tedious battle that I and I think many of you face.

                It’s easy enough to know that were in the middle of a war. Take one look around at the millions of children who die every day from starvation and tell me were not in the middle of a gruesome battle. Take one look at the thousands of people in your local city that sleep on the streets at night and tell me were not in hostile territory. And take one look at your inner thoughts and tell me were not deep in the mud of the trenches. You see its simple enough to admit that were fighting, but much more difficult to identify who were fighting against. Sure Afghani terrorist or the guy with the horns get the fingers often pointed at them, but are they truly the ones causing all of this devastation, destruction, and decay? I mean, yes, terrorist are the cause for horrendous incidents such as 9/11, and, yes, the Devil is a very real enemy that’s responsible for only God knows what. But if you’re anything like me, than there is a much more immediate threat that lies much closer to our home front ( do not, and I repeat DO NOT, think I’m downplaying the  power of the devil here). What could be more ruthless than terrorist and more conniving than the devil? What causes us to stumble so much more frequently? What seemingly evil and uncontrollable force has the potential to cause us to crumble?

The answer is simple:  our own minds

                Think about it. If you’re anything like me, you know what the differences between right and wrong are at least 99% of the time. And yet we seem to choose the wrong decisions way more than that measly 1%. If you’re anything like me than your heart begs you to do the correct thing but your mind convinces you to do otherwise. If you’re anything like me than sometimes it feels like an epic battle is raging between your emotions and reasoning. And if you’re anything like me than you know full well what it means to lose these battles. Often times I know what I should do, what God wants me to do, and yet time after time I find myself failing. Now it’s easy enough to shirk the responsibility and accredit the reasons of why I fail to the Devil, and I’m sure he loves that, but in all honesty, in those dark and dreary moments when I turn my back on God, it’s because part of myself- somewhere deep down inside my mind- wants me to. If I was to ever seriously take the time to reflect upon the reasons why I fail instead of trying to quickly sweep them under the rug than I would realize that my minds a big, lunch money stealing bully. In times of temptation or intense emotions my mind wrestles and puts a firm chokehold on my heart, stifling it so as to prohibit it from speaking.

                What’s wrong with us? Are we so screwed up that our minds choose wrong over right? Are we so far gone that we choose temporal happiness over eternal joy? Are we so far off the path that we’ve now created a new beaten path to misery and emptiness?

Time and time again I’ve cried out to God to help me not stumble, and time and time again He has screamed that I’m the one stopping myself. Time and time again I have begged God to free me from my chains, and time and time again He has whispered that I’m the one who threw away the keys. Time and time again I’ve asked God to alleviate my pain, and time and time again He has said that I’m the one who throws away the remedy.  

We have the power to stem our own suffering and sinfulness, but so many times we fail to recognize the source. Just like Job, we need to probe the darkest corners of our minds and illuminate them. Expose your weaknesses for what they really are. Admit, instead of hide, your iniquity. We all sin (Romans 3:23), and we all should confess these sins to our friends and family (James 5:17). By doing so we will be able to properly raise a holy army that even our own minds can’t sabotage.

 I encourage you to look into your minds and find where the Enemy is lurking behind.