Enemies of Our Faith
by Staff Writer Teri Underwood

Do you have any enemies? Probably most of us have encountered people in our lives who, at the very least, did not wish us well and perhaps even tried to cause us pain or hardship. And, if we are truly honest, most of us have had that same type of feeling about someone at some point. We often allow envy, misunderstanding, and long-held grudges to affect our relationships with people. Eventually, though, we may recognize those feelings as unreasonable and even harmful to us and we begin the process of reconciliation or moving past the hurt so we can find healing in our hearts.

Those enemies in life can change us as can the way we deal with them. But we have enemies in our faith in Christ also. And these enemies are far more dangerous. Allowing them to enter our lives gives Satan a stronghold to begin to move us from our love for our Savior. Let’s look at several of these enemies of our faith and examine how we can recognize them and, when possible, avoid them.

One of the most dangerous tools of Satan is WORRY. For you see, when we worry, we take our eyes off God and begin to look around. One of my favorite illustrations of this is Peter walking on the water. As long as his eyes were on Christ, he did not need to worry about the Lord’s protection of him. But, Peter was just like so many of us, he looked around! He saw the waves and the lightening and he knew the depth of the water beneath him and what did he do? He worried! And he began to sink. Isn’t that what worry does in our lives ~ it weighs us down. We begin to ponder "how" and "why" and "when" and "where" and our focus changes. But, there’s an answer! Jesus didn’t let Peter sink too far; He reached out for him and pulled him into the safety of his provision. And He is faithful to do the same for us. Paul wrote, "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make your requests known to God." (Philippians 4:6) Jesus said, "Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day enough trouble of its own." (Matthew 6:34).

So what are we to do about worry – RELEASE! As the old song says, "Take it to the Lord in prayer." Oh, and the hard part isn’t taking it to the Lord, it’s leaving it there! That takes a willingness to believe that God’s word is true and that He will take care of all our needs. In my experience, learning to leave my problems and worries at the Lord’s feet simply takes practice.

A second enemy of our faith is complacency. Perhaps one of the greatest illustrations of the power of complacency can be found in C.S. Lewis’ "The Screwtape Letters." In this work of fiction, a young demon named Wormwood is coached by his Uncle Screwtape in the handling of a new convert. As the convert begins to revert to his previous lifestyle while at the same time attending church and believing himself to be righteous, Screwtape says,"As long as he remains externally in the habits of a Christian he can still be made to think of himself as one who has adopted a few new friends and amusements but whose spiritual state is much the same as it was six weeks ago. And while he thinks that, we do not have to contend with the explicit repentance of a definite, fully recognized, sin, but only with his vague, though uneasy, feeling he hasn’t been doing very well lately." Stop for a moment and think about the idea expressed in those few sentences. What a scary concept! We must remain on our guards against complacency. Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard is quoted as saying, "The greatest enemy of Christianity is mediocrity." Are you living a life of mediocrity? If so, you are likely complacent in your faith. What is the remedy? Get into God’s word! Increase your prayer time! And most importantly, be willing to remove all those things in your life which are part of your complacency and replace them with a genuine zeal for serving and loving Jesus Christ.

The third and final enemy of our faith I’d like to consider is busyness. This one fits nicely with complacency and can often be its cause. But being busy can be very dangerous to our faith! Do you teach Sunday School, sing in the choir, and go on visitation? Are you a nursery worker, a member of six church committees? None of these things of themselves are bad; in fact they are all worthy examples of putting our faith into action. But, when all our busyness ~ especially our spiritual busyness ~ interferes with our spiritual business, that is the time we spend in communion with the Lord, it’s an enemy!! The solution? Again, time in God’s word and in prayer. A sincere daily quiet time helps us focus on God’s priorities for our time and service. A good measure question to ask yourself to determine your busyness is: "Do I spend more time doing church stuff than I spend alone with God in a week?" If your answer is yes – you are too busy!!

There are many other examples of enemies of our faith; but these are ones that really seem to affect women. We fall too often for Satan’s lies. We believe that "mothers worry" and that our "faith is at a plateau right now" and that "I’m doing all of this at the church because it’s my way of serving God." Yes, the truth is ~ mothers do worry! But faithful mothers recognize that when worry comes, it’s time to pray. And yes, there are times when our Christian growth seems to level off for a period. But it’s at those times we should be seeking a new level of commitment by seeking our Father in a new way. And of course we serve God by being active in our churches. But no amount of working in the church can replace daily time with God.

As you look back over the past year and ahead to next, I pray that you will ask God to reveal what enemies of faith have a stronghold in your heart. Once He shows you those, pray for His guidance and strength in removing them.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Help us see the lies the Evil One tells us

Guide us in turning those strongholds over to You

Bless us as we seek Your face

Honor our efforts to know You more

And give us Your grace and mercy

To move beyond the failures of today

Into the peace of tomorrow.

Amen

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