With God, anything that stands against you will always be inferior to what resides within you.

Being alert is not to vigilantly stand on tip-toe in order to scan some distant horizon out of the fear of some approaching enemy. Quite the opposite. It is falling to our knees knowing that God is already out on that horizon and that He thwarted the enemy long before they ever reached it.

A father teaches his children that the battle is not determined by the enemy that stands around them, but by the God Who stands within them. And that lesson can only be driven home as they watch their father stand around them, while God stands within their father.

The reason that I can’t find the enemy is that I have yet to look within myself.

More times than I’m willing to admit I am my own worst enemy, which suggests that more times than I’m willing to admit I should allow God to be my own best friend.

To battle against the heart of my foe is far different than battling against any weapon that they might hold in their hands. And as for my enemy, the same is true for what I hold in mine.

Men will always be at battle,” the little girl said with an uncanny maturity. With her stride unbroken, she continued “Whether that battle is on a battlefield like this one, or on the most difficult battlefield of the heart and mind. It really doesn’t matter all that much, men will battle.

I can readily see the tyrants that stand all around me. But what I have a hard time seeing is the hero that resides within me. And I have effectively determined whether I will succeed or fail simply by choosing which of these two I will focus on.

As I look at my life, I might ask “Who is the person that represents the greatest threat to me?” And if I happen to have a mirror around somewhere, I can rather quickly answer that question.