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When I look at myself in the mirror, I often see an enemy!

A “Prima Donna” at the opera-ballet in Paris, expressed herself in a Radio interview. She spoke of the continuous exertions and practices, which are demanded from her body every day, to be able to maintain the top position as the “Prima Ballerina” at the opera. Her body has to undergo every day anew this hard training, so to fulfill these expected performances. Very often she sees therefore an enemy in the mirror who has to be overcome, because most of the time she unwillingly endures the sacrifices and abstinences, which are demanded.

Especially during the Lenten time, quite a few of us have come to notice our mirror image and have not liked what we saw and therefore have declared “war” to our bodies. We all know about the courage, the patience and perseverance that are necessary to better our picture in the mirror. Quite often it is the same with us as the Apostle James described. We love best to forget our mirror image, that is the figure which the mirror shows us as fast as possible. Sometimes other people “mirror” our appearance, because their presence may just disturbingly remind us of our own picture.

But today it goes about something much more important, then the outer appearance. Because Apostle James warned us before such inconsequent behaviour, when God holds the “mirror” of His Word before our eyes. We recognize, while hearing the sermon at God’s service or reading in the bible and our scripts, that the Word depicts a spiritual mind or soul-condition, which is resembling ours. Most of the time we don’t like to admit it. Our conceptions with the Truth of the gospel to compare with Jesus Christ, observes the risk, that we want to quickly forget the outcome, because mostly it does not correspond. But we cannot keep on like this, because there are many dangers involved with it. The inner, new man, who Jesus wants to create in us, “will win no worldly beauty contest.” We are reminded of another word by the Apostle James. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)

These warnings surely point also to those “good sides” of life or the world, which we still only like too much still and whose “friendships” seem all too important to us. Today we want to also accept, that some of these “friends” are God’s enemies – and I am deeply convinced that no child of God wants to belong to those.

God grant us strength and courage, to “declare war” to this sometime ugly picture of ourself, and overcome this enemy with the help of our constant and true Friend, Jesus Christ, by the Spirit He has sealed within us.