Elkan's Word For Today

FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES (Pt. 3)

 Enemy Facts #2

YOUR ENEMIES BRING OUT WHAT’S DEEP INSIDE YOU

Yesterday, we learnt to think twice about who we decide to consider our enemies. However, some of us would admit that that doesn’t really make us feel any better. There are still some persons that just seem to know how to crawl into our skins. We’re constantly irked by them and really wish we could do without them.

You hang around your friends, church members, etc. and you feel so super-spiritual; but these persons (pests?) just bring out the worst of us. They know the right buttons to push, the right way to step on our toes, the right way to ‘rub it in’, etc.

Well, maybe you should pause and think about it for a while. They bring out the “worst in us”; they didn’t CREATE the worst in us, they only bring it out. I think they deserve some applause for that because it is clear that they make us acknowledge the negative parts of us that we never knew (or admitted) existed.

Here’s an analogy:

What happens if you haul a stone straight into a building? You’ll get different responses. You may hear dog barking, people shouting, or (if you live in my neighbourhood), several more stones hauled back in your direction.  That means your stone made whatever was inside the house to reveal itself.

If you do not own a dog, no matter how much stones are flung into your house, no barking will be heard.

We detest our enemies so much because they draw out what is deep inside us. They show us that, despite our perceived saintliness, that we are capable of anger, disgust, frustration, jealousy, malice, even hatred. A Christian could go about looking sweet, singing angelic hymns throughout the day and looking holy enough for Mother Theresa to blush... until they meet their enemy. Then their halo slips off and, like a werewolf exposed to moonlight, another part of them comes up.

Sometimes it may be something as subtle as envy, (if you have someone who always try to remind you that they are better, richer, more beautiful, more successful, etc. you’ll understand).

So, the next time you feel like “twisting that woman’s dirty mouth”, (and she deserves it too, I agree); pause and reflect to yourself what that impulse says about the current state of your heart. Do it now, or else one day the ‘dog’ will bark at an embarrassing and inopportune moment, and you’ll be needing to make explanations to those who hold you in high esteem.

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Ps 139:23, 24.

For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 1Co 11:31.

Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Heb 12:15.

AMEN

More Blessings await you; you’ll not miss them in Jesus Name.

GREG ELKAN