Let Not My Enemies Exult

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust;

    let me not be put to shame;

    let not my enemies exult over me.

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;

    they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

“Make me to know your ways, O Lord;

    teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,

    for you are the God of my salvation;

    for you I wait all the day long.” (Psalms 25:1-5 ESV)

What kinds of things will our true enemies do to us to try to put us to shame? I suspect the same kinds of things they did to Jesus, to try to trip him up with his words so that they would have cause to accuse him of wrongdoing. They may lay psychological (not physical) traps for us, hoping that we will fall into them, hoping that they will have cause to accuse us, and/or hoping to lead us into sin. For they want to bring us down. They want us to fail so that they can rejoice over our failure.

And who are our enemies? They can be anyone, in reality. They can be members of our own families, like Jesus talked about, or they can be others who also profess faith in Jesus Christ, but not in truth, and not in righteousness. And they can be “pastors” of “church” congregations who are walking in the flesh, and not by the Spirit, who are following after the ways of the world in order to draw in large crowds from the world into their gatherings. And they can be the sinfully addicted, no matter who they are.

They also can be heads of governments and the news media and the pharmaceutical industry, and the sports industry, and Hollywood, and the rich and powerful of the world, and church denomination heads, and anyone who hates Jesus Christ and what he stands for, and so he also hates those who are following Jesus Christ with their lives in wholehearted devotion to the Lord. And so they will pretend as though they are our friends, and/or that they have our best interest at heart, but it is a trap, not in truth.

But we must guard our hearts and minds, and we must protect our hearts and minds against the enemy’s devices, by making certain that our minds and hearts are in the right place, and that we have all the appropriate boundaries in place, and that we don’t venture off into areas where we have been trapped before. And then we need to be following the Lord in his ways, and we need to have our minds and hearts filled up with his word, and with his truth, which we are daily putting into practice, by the grace of God.

“Good and upright is the Lord;

    therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

He leads the humble in what is right,

    and teaches the humble his way.

All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,

    for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

“Consider how many are my foes,

    and with what violent hatred they hate me.

Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!

    Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.

May integrity and uprightness preserve me,

    for I wait for you.” (Psalms 25:8-10,19-21 ESV)

But if we are willing, and we truly want to be taught by the Lord, because we want to walk in the ways of righteousness, and not the ways of the flesh, our Lord will instruct us in his ways, and he will lead us in his truth, and he will show us the way we ought to go. But then we must follow him and do what he says to do or not to do. For any time we think we know best or that we can handle a situation on our own, or that we don’t need help, then we definitely need our Lord’s help, but we have to accept it when given.

For if we are going to walk in the ways of the Lord and not fall prey to the traps of the enemy, then we must humble ourselves before our Lord and submit to him as Lord and walk in the ways in which he directs us to go. And he will teach us the right way. But the right way is not the easy way. It is the hard way, the narrow way that leads to life eternal, and it is fraught with all sorts of trials and tribulations and the testing of our faith. But these are for our good to strengthen us in our walks of obedience to our Lord.

But if we are going to walk in the ways of the Lord, and in the paths of his righteousness, we need to first be those who have been crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness, and no longer living in slavery to sin, but as slaves of God and of his righteousness – in his power and strength. Our lives must be committed to holy living and to walking in obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant).

But, again, when this is our walk of faith, and this is our commitment, and when we are serving the Lord with our lives, and we are walking in his ways, and we are sharing the truth of the gospel, and we are refuting the lies of the enemy, and we are encouraging the body of Christ to walk in the ways of the Lord and not according to the flesh, as we are instructed to do, then Satan is going to be hot on our trail, and we will have many physical enemies whose goal it will be to bring us down in one way or another. 

So we must be firm in our faith and we must be living holy lives, and we must daily have on that armor of God to fight. And daily we must guard our minds and hearts against anything that might have the possibility of drawing us away from our pure devotion to the Lord, for the enemy can be very sneaky and subtle and hidden from sight. So we must be people of integrity and uprightness who make it our practice to “set our faces like flint” (Isaiah 50:7) so that we follow Christ in his ways and not the ways of this world.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

The Last Mile of the Way

Songwriters: Sam Cooke

If I’m walking the pathway of duty,

If I work till the close of the day,

I shall see the great king in his beauty

When I've gone the last mile of the way. 

If for Christ I proclaim the glad story, 

If I see for his sheep gone astray, 

I am sure he will show me his glory

When I've gone the last mile of the way. 

When I've gone the last mile of the way, 

I will rest at the close of day, 

For I know, there are joys that await me

When I've gone the last mile of the way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSFhwZyPHE

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