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Jun 14, 2026 06:00am

The Bully

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In 1890 Amy Lefeuvre captured her readers with a story about a little boy named Teddy. My husband read Teddy’s Button to our children when they were little, and it has since been one of my favorites. Teddy’s father was a hero who died in battle and Teddy wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like him. Through the turn of events, his eyes were opened to the understanding of the greatest battle of all, the spiritual one. One of my favorite parts in the book is when Teddy commits his life to the Lord and wants to fight in “the Lord’s Army”. He asks the preacher who his enemy now is and with wisdom the man of God turns Teddy to a full-length mirror and explains that he will be his own worst enemy. So, in childlike candor Teddy declares that he will name this new enemy “Bully.” Throughout the book, as Teddy struggles with the epic battle between his flesh and the spirit, he observes that Bully almost wins at times, but with God’s help he is able to overcome him.

A few days ago, I was reading in Psalms 18 and was again reminded of this story and the battle with “Bully”. After the Lord delivered David from the hand of Saul, he wrote, “He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.” (Psalm 18:17-18)

All I could think about was my own “strong enemy” that is “too strong for me.” Maybe you know that feeling as well. There are days in my life that sin creeps. My flesh is weak and my faith is feeble. These are the days that I am truly my worst enemy. On those days when the flesh and spirit war, Satan does not need to come after me to tempt or discourage; I’m doing a fine job on my own. The Apostle Paul could relate. Inspired by the Holy Spirit he wrote, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:18-24)

It almost seems hopeless, doesn’t it? But Paul goes on to say, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 7:25-8:1) Thank God that on those days when sin abounds, we can cling to truths in God’s Word that grace abounds so much more.

God’s children who struggle with weak flesh and feeble faith can fully trust in Christ and His imputed righteousness. As Scripture says, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:3-4) And when “Bully” rears his ugly head, remember the Words of the Psalmist. “He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay.” (Psalm 18:17-18)