I’ve been reading Psalms lately, and I’ve noticed David talks a lot about his enemies. They chase him, seek to destroy him, want to ruin him. And, if you know David’s story, you know that he really did have some pretty awful enemies, Saul being #1. The king wanted David dead, and he did all he could to make that happen.
As I’ve been reading, I find my mind placing people in the “enemy” folders. Then I start getting angry at them, and I pump my fist in the air as David begs God to rain down destruction on their heads.
But then God reminds me of this verse, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:12. 
My real enemy isn’t those people that come to mind when reading the Psalms. They are just tools of my real enemy – Satan. He is the enemy of my soul. He wants me to remain bitter, to hate, to rejoice in the sufferings of others. And he sends his “forces” out to try and destroy me from the inside out.
I will remain defeated when I allow Satan to have victory. When I focus on the people he’s using, on the circumstances he twists, I wallow in sin. But when I climb out of that hole and look up, I am free. Satan has already been defeated at the cross. I have victory over him, through the power of Christ. I don’t need to remain in the dark. I have the light inside me!
Our enemies are real, friends. We need to acknowledge them and go to battle against them. But we need to make sure we are battling our real enemies, not the “decoys” our Enemy places in front of us. And we must remember that we are prepared for that battle, we are equipped, and we are assured that we are on the winning side. Our enemies only defeat us if we let them.
