June 7, 2025 Devo

In our passage today, David circles back to talk about the friend who betrayed him. He points out how his friend looks and talks one way on the outside, but on the inside, he’s very different. His friend tries to pretend as if he is loyal, but he isn’t. He tries to act as if he is “for you,” but he is not. The friend may be smooth-talking, but he has malicious intent.
But there was a phrase in this passage that caught my attention today. I believe it’s an insight into why a person like his betraying friend becomes the person they are. It’s the phrase, “but in his heart is war.” David uses this phrase to describe the friend’s toxic intentions. But I believe that the “war” isn’t just the man’s intentions and actions towards David. I believe it’s also a description of what’s going on WITHIN his friend. He is at war within himself.
You know who hurts other people? People who are already hurting themselves. People who are carrying wounds they’ve never healed. People who are full of fear and feelings of inadequacy. People who are insecure and feel inferior to those they are around. Almost all toxic human behavior and attitudes go back to the “war” that’s going on within someone. They seek to hurt because they are hurting. They seek to belittle because somehow that makes them feel bigger. They are angry because they feel unseen, unheard, and unloved. It’s the war within people that causes them to “open fire” on others. The war you see coming from them is a spillover from the war deep inside them.
That might be a truth that helps you this week. My guess is that many of you will cross the path of someone who has a war going on in their hearts. You’ll hear harsh words. You’ll see angry looks. They’ll do hurtful things. But before you fire back, take a moment to ask God to help you see them from His perspective. If you do, you may see a hurting person instead of a hurtful person, a wounded heart instead of an evil heart, and a lonely person instead of a loud person. And you may discover that the war you're encountering has nothing to do with you. You see, when there is a war within them, it’s not you they hate. It’s themselves. And that perspective will help you to give them over to God rather than fight with them. Just because there’s a war, you don’t have to join it. That’s God’s Word for you today.