Who Is The Real Enemy?

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. James 4:1-4 NIV

When we choose to live a life in opposition to God, we end up with desires that yet remain unfulfilled and when those desires burn within, we adopt behaviors and attitudes that create even more chaos. At some point in our lives, we must come to terms with the fact that it is our desires--our obsession with controlling others and bending them to our will--that is the true enemy that lurks in our society, killing and destroying hope and joy.

Many never see the fulfillment of answered prayer because of wrong motives when seeking God and asking Him for anything and because they do not get what they want--they steal or kill to get it because the desire burning within them is greater than the desire to do what is right.

People kill other people when those they desire do not share their feelings or when they cannot change what they do that will please them. How many husbands or wives kill others to free themselves? How many insecure people destroy the lives of others because they cannot see beyond what they want and destroy entire families? For it is insecurities that motivate hatred and jealousy, but many are not willing to admit or own their weaknesses or shortcomings.

Hatred is the result of people who are insecure within themselves and want to be somebody God never intended them to be. We see this whenever someone is killed by those who have been brain-washed into believing their religious beliefs are superior to others. There is no superior religion, but there is an excellent relationship all can enjoy with God.

If we carefully examine and analyze what we "desire" we would discover that if our desires do not align with God's Word, we become miserable and out of the misery, rises hatred, jealousy, envy and desire to make others suffer. Why? Because so many lack maturity in understanding that God did not intend for us to be clones. He created us all uniquely individual, with varying gifts and abilities--designed to make the "whole" better and effective.

So the real enemy in our midst is the "desire" to do or go beyond God's plans for our lives. For when we go beyond God, we tend to want what the world has or wants for us and if we become carnal--friends and followers of those in the world who do not have a relationship with God, we set ourselves up for destruction.

Therefore, to eradicate the enemy within--we must see ourselves as we are and be willing to change who we are and our desires--not demanding that others change who they are. In the end, God will judge all matters and that includes the desires of our heart--especially when they lead to destruction.