Being Prepared for Battle - The Shield of Faith

This is the forth of six posts.

Ephesians 6:13-17

The Shield of Faith

"In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;" (v16)

There have been days in my life where I have felt spiritually attacked by Satan all day long. And it sort of feels like Satan is shooting a bunch of flaming darts (or arrows) in my direction with a sinister laugh. Those darts, in my life at least, are Satan's lies. And there are some days when he just likes to rattle them off into my ear without ceasing; he has a whole quiver full of them that he likes to use.

Here are a few of the big ones in my life:

• You are worthless and no one really cares about you.
• You deserve this thing that you want.
• You are amazing!
• God won't forgive that sin.
• You should be ashamed!
• I can't believe you did that. No one else would have done what you did, you sinner!
• Good thing you aren't her.

The list can go on and on. I'm not even sure that there's an end to the lies Satan can tell me. And sometimes it's really hard to not believe them. I think that's why it's the shield of Faith. Because it really takes genuine faith to believe the truth over the lie. I have to be certain of what I do not see (Heb 11:1), because sometimes I just don't see how the truth can be right when the lie looks so real. But the genuine faith that God has given me in Christ, has the power to extinguish any flaming dart Satan shoots at me. Satan is no match against my Shield of Faith because it was created and perfected by God himself (Heb 12:2).

And there are times when I feel like that Shield of Faith is just too heavy for me to lift and I feel bombard by flaming darts. But praise the Lord, that in his grace and mercy, he can and will lift it for me if I just ask it of him.

Being Prepared for Battle - Feet Fitted With Readiness

This is the third of six posts.

Ephesians 6:13-17

Feet Fitted With Readiness

"and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." (v15)

Some of you know that I'm not much of a shoe person. While some women have up to 50 pairs of shoes, I own about 7 pairs. Now I'm not dogging on those women that love shoes and have every kind of shoe in existence, I'm just not one of them. I find a pair of shoes that fit, are comfortable, and can be used for multiple occasions and those are the ones I own.

That's the picture I get with these shoes described in the passage. They are the ready-for-every-use shoe.

Most of the time when I wear a pair of my shoes I'm not too worried about where I am walking. I don't have to worry about not walking on certain surfaces because my shoes are doing what they were meant to do; protect my feet and enable me to go places and do things. Without the proper footwear I could be severely limited. For example, I can't go hiking in high heels and I can't run 6 miles in flip-flops.

I think that's the idea with "fitting my feet with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace". It's making sure that I can go anywhere and do anything the Lord calls me to do since I'm not worried about what my next step is going to do to my welfare. Spiritually speaking, it's making sure that my heart is trusting in the gospel of peace so that I don't have to be anxious about anything that the Lord might bring onto my path (Phil 4:6-7).

The gospel is a gospel of peace. If I ever have any fears or anxieties, all I need to do is return to the gospel and believe it's truths. And it's when I am resting in the gospel that I can walk in trust and obedience to my Lord, not worrying about what might be coming next; I'm ready for anything.

Being Prepared for Battle - The Breastplate of Righteousness

This is the second of six posts.

Ephesians 6:13-17

The Breastplate of Righteousness

"having put on the breastplate of righteousness" (v14)

When I thought about this piece of the armor, I thought about what it's supposed to protect. In general it protects the chest area, but I think more specifically it protects the heart. One stab to the heart and you're dead.

So what does that equate to spiritually? I wonder if the real heart issue is my righteousness. Satan seems to always be attacking my righteousness in some form or fashion. In one way he likes to shove my sin back in my face and tell me that I'm worthless sinner and that my sin makes God mad at me. In another way, he likes to wave my "good works" in front of my eyes in order that I might claim some level of self-righteousness. Neither of those scenarios are good.

But I wonder if that "Breastplate of Righteousness" is really the breastplate of Christ's righteousness. Because if I am wearing that breastplate then it deters Satan's stabs. On the one hand, yes, I am a sinner who deserves nothing. But Christ's Righteousness has been imputed to me and I stand holy and unashamed before my Creator God. And on the other hand my self-righteousness is nothing in comparison to Christ's Righteousness. My self-righteousness dissolves in light of Christ's perfection.

Satan can ruin me on the basis of my righteousness. That's why I need Christ's Righteous Breastplate to cover over my heart so that Satan doesn't destroy me.

Being Prepared for Battle - The Belt of Truth

This is the first of six posts.

I finished reading Ephesians this morning. I read through the last half of chapter 6 which has a very familiar passage in it. And it's really easy for me to read through the "full armor of god" section without putting much thought into it because I have heard it so many times before. But this time I decided to slow down and think about each piece of the armor and what it's purpose was. Paul must have had some intention with what he equated each piece of the armor with and so I wanted to spend a some time thinking about it.

My disclaimer is that these will just be my thoughts of what came across to me as I thought about each piece. There are probably several meanings you could pull out from the passage and I don't claim to have the best or only interpretation of it.

The passage I am looking at is Ephesians 6:13-17.

The Belt of Truth

"Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth" (v14)

My first thought on this was that if you don't have your belt fastened your pants/bottoms will fall off; which isn't a good thing. Then I read a few commentaries about "girding your loins" and how the belt kept things in place so that you weren't tripping over yourself and how the belt had leather pieces hang in order to protect the lower half of your body. I also read about how the belt would hold the sword while not in use. So my main thought about this was that the belt sort of holds everything together. With out having a fastened belt the whole ensemble practically falls apart. And I thought about how it's the same with Truth. If we don't have Truth fastened and nailed down then there is no hope of fighting a battle. We need to know what reality is and we need to have a firm grasp of it. If there is a wavering of what is true and what is not true, then we won't be able to fight against the spiritual forces, since we don't even really know what going on. We're too busy trying to pick up the pieces of our armor (or life) and keep them together. But with Truth fastened around me holding me together, then I will be equipped to fight a spiritual battle.