How to Outsmart Your Enemies
Psalm 119:97-101 Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word.
We all have enemies in our lives. People who come against us and oppose us at every turn. I remember back in the days when I worked as a consultant in the corporate world, the brutality of office politics would never cease to amaze me.
And even if you’re travelling through a patch at the moment, where you don’t seem to have any human enemies, you can be absolutely certain that your enemy the devil is on your case.
… we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)
And your enemy the devil is a pretty crafty individual. He’s seen it all before. He’s been round the block quite a few times more than you and me, and he knows how to strike you at your weakest point. He knows how to push your buttons. He knows how to lead you astray.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
Sensational! Now, I’m not the sort of person that goes looking for a demon under every sofa and bed, but there is a spiritual dimension and there is a physical dimension. We live and exist in both of those and we have enemies, seen and unseen, in both places.
So, would you like to be wiser than your enemies? Here’s what God has to say:
Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the aged, for I keep your precepts. I hold back my feet from every evil way, in order to keep your word. (Psalm 119:97-101)
So there you have the psalmist praying, talking to God. And he’s saying how much he loves God’s Word, what today we call the Bible. Of course back then, he only had the first five books of the Bible, the law as it’s called, because the rest hadn’t been written yet. But why does he love God’s Word?
Because God’s commandments make him wiser than all his enemies. They give him more understanding and insight into complex and difficult issues, even more than his teachers – because he thinks about what God has to say.
Hey, God wants that for you too. He wants to impart His wisdom to you. He wants to make you smarter than your enemies by speaking His wisdom into your heart. And it’s all right there, in the Bible, ready and waiting! Wow!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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