Behaving Wisely Keeps the Enemy at Bay

There is no question that no matter how nice of a person we are in this life, that we will face at some point or another in our life a person we will consider an enemy.  They may disagree with us and make their opinion known very loudly to us and others.  They may not want to speak to us and may yell at us.  They may not want to help us when we need it.  They may even do things out of jealousy towards us.  David, as we have seen previously, love the Lord and behaved wisely; yet still he had enemies.  Read I Samuel 18: 15 and 16 –

“15 Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.”

King Saul saw that David was a mighty man and well loved.  He was extremely jealous of him.  King Saul sought many times to kill David because of his jealousy.  Saul could see that because David behaved so wisely that there was no way to honestly take him out of the picture.  As a result, King Saul became afraid of him.

When we behave wisely, we keep our enemies at bay.  As a result, like King Saul, our enemies will take steps to do wrong, to be rid of us, their threat.  The things they do will in the end be their un-doing.  They may be eaten up inside mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  They may be taken out by their enemies or even by God’s justice.  Bad never leads to good, but good only leads to good spiritually.  Behaving wisely only makes common sense.  Don’t give your enemies ammunition.

If Only

Do you ever get the “If Onlies”?  That’s when you basically regret whatever decision you made, because you now are experiencing the consequences of it.  Such as, “If only I had focused on my college education while I was in College, then maybe I would know what to do in this job situation.”  “If only I had not driven so fast, then I wouldn’t have gotten that ticket.”  “If only I had listen to my parents, then I wouldn’t have stayed with that boy and ended up in this predictment.”  We all get the “If Onlies” once and awhile.  Hopefully, we can learn from them and not make the same mistake twice or even be able to offer advice to others.  God gets the “If Onlies” about us.  Read Psalm 81: 13-14.

13 If only My people would listen to Me and Israel would follow My ways, 14 I would quickly subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their foes.”

God gives us so much that it should be easy to obey Him.  Yet it is like we are never satisfied or we still don’t trust Him.  We are just as stubborn as the Israelites.  They saw so many miraculous and wonderful things done by God and yet they instantly would not obey Him and wonder off His chosen path for them.  They ended up so many times during their history fighting enemies, starving and having their homes taken from them.  God thinks to Himself, “If only My people would have listen to Me and Israel (or put your name here) would follow My ways.”  Look what blessings He would have given the Israelites (or put your name here) if they/we would have only followed Him whole heartedly. If we had not followed our selfish desires, our enemies would have been subdued.  If only we had obeyed, life might have been better.  Wisdom would be not to have the “If Onlies” or to cause God to have the “If Onlies”, but instead to follow His ways and obey.

In the Habit of Trusting

Sometimes we can feel like everything is going wrong, or nothing is working out, or our plans and hopes will not come to pass, or our service to the Lord is not being blessed.  We may be being chased down by physical enemies or spiritual enemies in this life, but we always have God covering our back.  Unfortunately the circumstances can wear on our emotions.  Our heart becomes saddened and we might even become angry at God.  We just cannot understand what is going on.  We may even say, “Why isn’t God helping us?”

David had many bad things happen to him during his life.  When he wrote Psalm 63 he was on the run from King Saul and was hiding in the desert/wilderness.  What a difficult place to be.  He was in an ugly and uncomfortable environment.  He, his men and their families were at risk of death from Saul or lack of supplies.  They were tired and probably could have begun feeling that being faithful to God had not been worth it.  After all they could have eliminated King Saul and taken over the throne back when they were holding Saul’s own spear and were standing over him while he slept or when Saul had come in to the cave and they were hiding in the back of it.  Yet David did not raise up his hand against the King and honored God.  Read what David wrote in Psalm 63: 9-11,

“9 But those who seek my life, to destroy it, Shall go into the lower parts of the earth. 10 They shall fall by the sword; They shall be a portion for jackals. 11 But the king shall rejoice in God; Everyone who swears by Him shall glory; But the mouth of those who speak lies shall be stopped.”

All throughout David’s life we see an underlying theme.  David trusted in the Lord to take care of situations like he was in over and over again.  He was in the habit of trusting the Lord.  He trusted God so much that he didn’t even worry about if God took care of the person in this life or after the person had died.  Yes, as you can see by his writing, he hoped God would take care of his enemy now, but he also wrote about the person going down to the lower parts of the earth.  He knew God would be the person’s judge and would take care of it.  He knew one way or another that God will stop the mouths of the ones who lie.  He also stated, “Everyone who swears by Him shall glory.” What an interesting perspective.  Here David is in a bad situation and he knows that if he trusts in God that he shall still receive glory.  In other words, God will honor us for our faithfulness, whether it is now or in our life to come.  Our problem is that we just naturally want to receive physical blessings now or see our enemies taken care of now.  We have to accept that the physical blessings might not happen right now.  Just like when a parent knows when to reward their child for their behavior, we have to trust that God will reward us when the time is right.

It just makes common sense to be in the habit of trusting the Lord.  Remember trust the Lord no matter what is going on in your life.

Behaving Wisely Keeps the Enemy at Bay

There is no question that no matter how nice of a person we are in this life, that we will face at some point or another in our life a person we will consider an enemy.  They may disagree with us and make their opinion known very loudly to us and others.  They may not want to speak to us and may yell at us.  They may not want to help us when we need it.  They may even do things out of jealousy towards us.  David, as we have seen previously, love the Lord and behaved wisely; yet still he had enemies.  Read I Samuel 18: 15 and 16 –

“15 Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved very wisely, he was afraid of him. 16 But all Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them.”

King Saul saw that David was a mighty man and well loved.  He was extremely jealous of him.  King Saul sought many times to kill David because of his jealousy.  Saul could see that because David behaved so wisely that there was no way to honestly take him out of the picture.  As a result, King Saul became afraid of him.

When we behave wisely, we keep our enemies at bay.  As a result, like King Saul, our enemies will take steps to do wrong, to be rid of us, their threat.  The things they do will in the end be their un-doing.  They may be eaten up inside mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  They may be taken out by their enemies or even by God’s justice.  Bad never leads to good, but good only leads to good spiritually.  Behaving wisely only makes common sense.  Don’t give your enemies ammunition.