Faith

Ephesians 6:16 Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Here is an example of how many people live their Christian life:

A woman says to her friend, "I'm struggling. Are you struggling? I just have so many struggles. Ho-hum." 

Her friend responds, "Oh I am so sorry, yes, I am struggling as well.  I have just too many struggles.  Struggle, struggle, struggle.  Ho-hum." 

They both spend the next hour or so talking about their "struggles" yet end the conversation with quips like, "Well, if God brought us to it, He will bring us through it" "God is God on the mountains and He is God in the valleys too."  "Let's just praise Him in this storm"  "This too shall pass"  etc. and so on.  Sound familiar?  We all do it, don't lie and say you don't.  We take comfort in talking about our struggles with each other and crying on each other's shoulders, and there is nothing wrong with it unless we have more faith in our conversations than we do in God. 

I am not making light of clichés necessarily, but I do want to draw our attention to something important in our Christian life.  Victory that is to be found in having faith.

We are to put on:

1. Truth
2. Righteousness
3. Preparation

and

4. The Shield of Faith

Let us go ahead and lay the foundation here.  You and I are always going to be attacked by the devil.  Always.  That is not going to change, so accept it.  We can't become a good enough person or Christian that the devil decides to leave us alone.  It is a fact of the Christian life that he will always be examining us, accusing us and firing away at us. 

You have heard the verses quoted a million times, "Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" and "we are more than conquerors", right?  But do you believe it?  Honestly, deep in your soul do you believe it? 

I think we believe God is able and that nothing is impossible with Him, but then we look at ourselves and think, "I have no hope".  We know our weaknesses and downfalls, so while we believe in God, we don't believe in ourselves.  And this is where I want us to think today.  Think about what you are actually believing.  Are you believing in your inability or God's ability?

We read the Truth and enjoy it while we read and study it.  We love the fact that we are covered in Jesus' Righteousness.  And we pray and ask God to shod our feet with the Preparation of the Gospel of peace.  But then we come to the shield of faith which is to be taken in order to protect the rest of our armor and we get scared.  We want to believe in it's power, but we leave it lying there on the floor and try to defend ourselves without it.  Then the hail of fiery darts descends upon our lives and we get wounded.  Some of us never make it up again.  All because we don't believe we can have faith.

Why do we get to this point?  Because Satan is already attacking us.  And he attacked one area that can help us in all others!  Faith.  He shines a spotlight on our failures and illuminates our weakness so that we are blinded to the fact we just need to believe God.  Satan knows at the moment we believe that we already have the victory, he becomes powerless.  So he wages a HUGE battle against the one thing that can quench him, our faith.

Wipe the slate clean today. It is Monday, a new week has begun.  Even if you just hastily read the Bible, yelled at your kids and grumbled at your husband, it doesn't mean you can't confess it all to God and start fresh.  Don't believe the one whispering in your ear that you are already failing at another week in your life.  Have faith in the power of confession of sins.  Have faith in the power that God will do what He said and forgive you! 

There is absolutely no need for us to be weak today.  There is grace found in the shield of faith that can totally stop the devil.  He cannot penetrate faith.  Don't take your eyes off of God's Power and turn them on your own faults.  You are choosing incorrectly and kicking God out of your life when you do this!  You open yourself up to all the hurt, the pain and the destruction of the enemy when you lay down your faith in God!

What can we have faith in today?

1. God's forgiveness.  (1 John 1:9)
2. God's love.  (John 17:26 and Ephesians 2:4)
3. God's care. (1 Peter 5:7)
4. God's Power (Colossians 1:11)
5. God's Omnipresence (Isaiah 57:15)

This list could go on and on.  God is all we need to stop the devil.  Have faith IN HIM!

Practically speaking, when the thought comes into your mind that you can't handle what is going on in your life, reject it.  Refer back to what the Truth says, that is why we gird ourselves in it first.  It is the basis of everything.  When you reject the wrong thought and refer to Scripture for guidance, you just quenched the dart of the devil. 

If you are already in a "life mess" that doesn't mean you can't pick up the shield of faith until your life is fixed!  NO!  That is the devil's lie, don't fall for it.  You can be clothed in the armor of the Christian today.  You can be used of God today!  Just because you may not know how it could happen doesn't mean God is in the dark and clueless!  Have faith IN HIM!

Pick up that shield of faith, pray behind it and ask God to transform your life and thinking so that it is in line with what He wants.  If you don't, then prepare yourself, the darts are headed your way and you are NOT protected. 

Come back Wednesday and we will talk about the Helmet of Salvation.

Until next time, Lord willing,

Sheri