Thwarting the Enemy
Unfortunately, we have enemies who come against us in this life. Sometimes, those enemies could be trusted friends who turn against us. That is just what happened to King David. His son Absalom decided to rebel against his father and set himself up as king, in direct rebellion to his authority. This caused David much grief, and he became afraid for his life and the lives of his closest followers. David led all of them out of Jerusalem, so he would not have to fight against Absalom and his forces. As he went, he heard that Ahithophel, one of his trusted advisers had gone over to Absalom's side to advise him. David knew his counsel could be very effective, so he asked the Lord to turn Ahithophel's counsel to foolishness. (II Samuel 15:31) As we shall see, God answered David's prayer, so I believe we can learn something about thwarting our enemies from this.
Of course, we should love our enemies. We should not desire for anything bad to happen to them, but we need to know how to keep them from hurting us. In order to do this we need God's help. Therefore, we need to pray for God to thwart the plans of our enemies. We can pray, as David did, for God to turn their counsel into foolishness, so that others do not listen to them and so they do not know how to hurt us. Sometimes, we can pray for God to confuse our enemies, too. Then, at other times, we can pray that he will cause the enemies to fight against themselves or show others they are really doing what is wrong by taking their actions against us. That way others will stand up for us and help us. In all of this we need to remember that people are not our ultimate enemies. Satan is behind anyone who comes to harm us. Therefore, we must wage spiritual warfare against him and his forces. We can pray these same things against the devil and his demons, so God will thwart their attacks on us. When we do this in faith, like David did, Satan will be defeated no matter what He shoots at us. (Ephesians 6:16)
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Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 16-19.
Of course, we should love our enemies. We should not desire for anything bad to happen to them, but we need to know how to keep them from hurting us. In order to do this we need God's help. Therefore, we need to pray for God to thwart the plans of our enemies. We can pray, as David did, for God to turn their counsel into foolishness, so that others do not listen to them and so they do not know how to hurt us. Sometimes, we can pray for God to confuse our enemies, too. Then, at other times, we can pray that he will cause the enemies to fight against themselves or show others they are really doing what is wrong by taking their actions against us. That way others will stand up for us and help us. In all of this we need to remember that people are not our ultimate enemies. Satan is behind anyone who comes to harm us. Therefore, we must wage spiritual warfare against him and his forces. We can pray these same things against the devil and his demons, so God will thwart their attacks on us. When we do this in faith, like David did, Satan will be defeated no matter what He shoots at us. (Ephesians 6:16)
#NHBaptistdotorg
Tomorrow, I intend to read II Samuel 16-19.