Born Free: 16 Principles to Help You Be FreeSample

Principle 5: You Are Your Only Important Enemy

The fifth power principle is this: The only important battle you will ever fight will be with yourself. If you don’t believe that, just ask Paul. He fought that battle all the time: “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. . . . O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Romans 7:19, 24). Jesus knew all about the battle and knew that most of us spend most of our time fighting the wrong enemy: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:1-5).

I am not your mother. And you are not my mother. That means that I am not responsible for your obedience, and you are not responsible for mine. You are responsible for your obedience and I’m responsible for mine.

Too often, marriages and relationships fail because people try to garner all of their emotional worth from another person. No one but God can give you emotional worth. We are so critical of others in the church, trying to make them fit into our mold. And even worse, people are so critical of us, and we allow it. Stop it! My battle is with myself, and your battle is with yourself.