My Own Worst Enemy

I've always been a baseball fan. Some of my greatest childhood memories were playing catch with my dad in the back yard and going to the Braves game (peanuts and cracker jacks included). When my fascination with baseball started, the team I rooted for wasn't so good. Well that's an exaggeration, lets just call it like it is, they were terrrible (with three r's).

Then everything changed. The Braves had a last place finish in 1990 but managed to overtake the Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the National League West clinching the division on the next to the last day of the regular season. I can still hear the venerable Skip Carey, with all the emotion of a great announcer, as the Braves won that game in perfect rhythm saying "From worst...to FIRST!"

Much of the turnaround for my team that year landed on the shoulders Hall of Famer John Smoltz. Still young and unproven, Smoltz had shown flashes of brilliance in the past, but struggled with consistency. At the All-Star break of the 1991 season, John Smoltz was 2-11 with a 5.16 ERA. It was the middle of his second full season in the Big Leagues and even though he had had some success in his rookie year, there were many people that doubted whether he would ever develop into a winning pitcher. As the story goes, Smoltz turned things around in a big way and went 12-2 with a 2.62 ERA in the second half of the season and never looked back.

When pressed about what made the turnaround for him, Smoltz attributed his success to a sports psychologist, a Christian, who helped him see that his greatest enemy was himself. His mindset was affecting his ability. See every time the pitcher would run into difficulty, he didn't have the mental fortitude to let the past go and focus on the next pitch. He was His own worst enemy. He's not the first (or the last) to have struggled with this. It's as old as Joshua and the children of Israel yet just as real in our lives today. Here's what God showed me from Joshua 1 and 2.

Highlight:

'Before the men fell asleep, she went up on the roof and said to them, “I know that the Lord has given you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us, and everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost heart, and everyone’s courage failed because of you, for the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below. ' Joshua 2:8-11

'Above all, be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or the left, so that you will have success wherever you go. This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. ' Joshua 1:7-8

Explain:

In Joshua 1 & 2, the children of Israel stand on the banks of the promised land ready (finally) to pursue their destiny. In chapter 2, Joshua sends 2 specs into the land secretly. I can’t decide if this is a wise move or not, there is no command form the Lord to do this and the last time they did this, it caused a generation to die in the wilderness. Nonetheless it is significant that Joshua sent 2 in instead of 12. There were 2 spies who were confident they could take the land the first time.

When the spies enter the land they find a harlot who is confident the Lord has given them the land and the surrounding peoples know it because they have heard of the testimony of the God of the Israelites of His power and strength in the lives of this nation of slaves and the people are living in fear of Him.

How sad is it that the enemy had more faith in what God could do than the Israelites did initially. The root issue in not pursuing the land earlier was their fear in the face of what God was asking them to do in their obedience. They didn’t have the courage to obey because they didn’t have the heart to believe that God could do what He had promised. The enemy had that faith but God’s people did not.

Is it any wonder then that the Lord’s instructions to Joshua were to ‘be strong and very courageous to observe carefully the whole instruction my servant Moses commanded you.’

Apply:

It takes courage to believe God’s word enough to obey it in the face of fear and when the stakes are so high. Yet what they didn’t know is that the enemy knew that their destruction was imminent. The only thing precluding the Israelites from victory was their own faith. They were their own worst enemy. They didn’t have the faith to believe what the enemy already knew that if God had promised something, He would do it.

How often in our lives are we our own worst enemy as well? How often have we not had the courage to believe and obey God’s promises when that fear was the only thing stopping us from realizing the victory God had already procured for us? Victory comes when we have enough courage to believe God’s promises and obey His commands. When we do that we unlock the door to victory in our lives. Will we have enough faith to believe God’s promises, if we do, then obedience will be our response and victory will be our outcome.

But conversely, when we live in fear, we will never see the outcome that our obedience and the faith that activated it could unlock for us. The enemy knows its defeated, the only thing that can stop us from seeing the promises of God lived out in our lives is the courage it takes to believe and obey God’s word. Until then we live in defeat, but the moment we decide to develop the courage needed to obey, we will experience the victory of seeing God accomplish what He has promised in our lives.

One final idea, the courage to obey comes from meditating on God’s promises. When we choose to never let it leave our mouth, when we choose to meditate on it, we find the courage to believe the promises in which we have been soaking and when we do we will find the strength to obey and the victory that will follow.

Respond:

Jesus help me see the only thing standing between me and the victory You have promised me is the faith to believe and the courage to obey. Help me to meditate on Your promises such that I find the strength to obey You and live in the victory You promised.