PUT ON YOUR ARMOR, EVERY DAY (PART 5)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Ephesians 6:16

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

For the past four days, we have been looking at the individual components of the full armor of God, armor that Christian believers are to put on daily so to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil who is ever lurking around like a hungry lion waiting to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

As we turn to our scripture verse for today, we find the Apostle Paul adding to “all this”, a referral to the parts of the armor we have already covered which were:

1. The belt of truth

2. The breastplate of righteousness

3. The shoes fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace

To these, Paul adds the “shield of faith”, the armor piece at the center of today’s message.

In biblical times, a shield was a critical part of a soldier’s self defense as it could absorb a strike from a sword or deflect arrows shot from a distance. Anyone who would go into battle without their shield was incredibly vulnerable to attack and in a position of danger.

Just as an enemy would seek to injure and take out an opponent in war, so too does the devil work to take out Christian believers. He does so with malevolent allies which include the “powers of this dark world” and “the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. This is why the Jesus follower needs to carry a spiritual self-defense element with them every day so to absorb and ward off the attacks of Satan.

As we look again at our verse for today, we see that this self defense element is the shield of faith, a shield that a believer can “extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one”. Note here that the shield of faith doesn’t just extinguish some of the flaming arrows but rather all of them. This happens because of the One we place our faith in, namely the Lord God Almighty, the One who will always have the victory over the devil.

Maintain a steadfast faith in the Lord and you will have His steadfast protection, an incredibly powerful supernatural shield that ensures that good triumphs over evil, not just some of the time but all of it.

Let your faith waver and you will put yourself in a place of spiritual compromise, a place where the enemy can strike and cause damage. Maybe you can relate to this. I know I can.

That’s what makes this passage so critical as we see Paul spare no small detail in instructing all Christians, whether in Ephesus or elsewhere, on how to protect themselves and stay in the fight with God by their side through life. For while donning His full armor, a Christian possesses a power well beyond their own, the power of the Lord which always assures victory.  

Tomorrow, we’ll finish this series with the helmet and sword, seeing what they are associated with.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com