Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes
I write today not to you, but to me.
Ephesians 6:10-18 says:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
This passage talks about how we should put on the full armor of God in order to take our stand against the devil’s schemes. Well, yesterday and today I left my shield at home. I wasn’t able to stand against the devil’s schemes. I failed quite badly actually. Just days after my last post about how God has given me strength to stand up and fight, i choose to not stand up and fight. The strength doesn’t do any good if your not going to use it.
A while back, I was thinking about this passage. I saw the importance of the sword, how in battle swords are used not only offense, but also defense. They are used to make advances, but can also be used to block attacks, in close range fights. At the time I didn’t understand the need for the shield, I thought, why not just defend with the sword. It occurs to me now, the sword isn’t much good against any army of archers, who attack from far off, firing many arrows at a time. Another thing just occurs to me now. All the archers fire at once, they don’t go for accuracy, they just fire a lot and hope one of the many hits the target. Sounds like the devil to me. He fires everything he has and hopes one of his tactics work. We can defend our selves with our shield, just stand behind it, but with out it, well, a sword might stop one, but not much more than that, if that.
I do ask for your prayers though. Pray that I would continue to be strong and pick up and wear the entire armor of God.
Peace to you,
Adam
