Who Is Your Enemy?

Below is my devotion for today. I felt lead to share it. May you be blessed by it. I know I was.
Lady G~


Who Is Your Enemy?
by Dennis and Barbara Rainey


For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
-Ephesians 6:12


A lot of jokes picture marriage as a battlefield. MS magazine once
advised: "Marriage is the only war where you sleep with the enemy."

I would rather picture the entire world as the true battlefield and
your marriage as being God's smallest battle formation for winning
the war. In truth, your marriage is taking place on a spiritual
battlefield, not a romantic balcony.

Every married couple needs to understand the following biblical
principle:

Your mate is not your enemy.

Picture your marriage as two people joined together in a foxhole,
cooperating in battle against a common enemy. Take a good look at
your own foxhole. Are you fighting the enemy or each other? As a
friend of ours told me, "I was so busy standing up in the foxhole
duking it out with my husband that I had no time to be involved in
fighting against the real enemy."

Keep in mind that whenever you declare war on your mate, ultimately
you are opposing God Himself. You are rejecting the person He
provided to complete you, to meet your needs.

Here's a practical test to discover if you view your mate as an
enemy or as a fellow "soldier." Do you focus on the negative in your
mate or on the positive? When you marry, you're so caught up in your
new spouse that he or she can seem to do no wrong. But within 12,000
miles or 12 months, whichever comes first, you reverse the process.
You are now so focused on what your mate does wrong that you are
oblivious to what he or she does right!

I love Robert Lewis Stevenson's exhortation for us as we look at our
spouses. He says, "Make the most of the best and the least of the
worst."

Prayer:

That God would make you aware of the true battle and enemy you face
each day, and how you need each other on that battlefield.

Discuss: Who is your real enemy? Think back to times when you have
forgotten who your real enemy was-how did that impact your marriage
and family? Do you treat your mate as a partner or as an enemy?