Spiritual Armor

We are in strange days, and we all know that, I thought it would be good to focus on a battle plan for the coming days. This plan will help us to be prepared and to be proactive rather than just spectators or casualties? Our faith is being challenged and we need to be ready to answer when asked about our faith. One passage that came to mind was Ephesians 6:10 - 18. We commonly call this passage Paul’s description of the believer’s armor. Let's turn to Ephesians 6 and look at this important text that will help us to be ready for whatever comes our way. Ephesians is one of Paul's prison epistles. That means that he wrote it while he was in jail. An interesting aspect of this letter is that he doesn't say anything about his prison stay under the Roman government except when he mentions in chapters 3:1 and 4:1, and in both verses he calls himself a prisoner of Christ. Some believe that Paul used the armor motif because he was chained to a soldier or he was in close contact with soldiers and could analyze the different pieces of protection that they wore. Whatever the case we know that his description of each piece gives us a vivid picture of our spiritual armor and is helpful especially in our day and circumstances. So for the next few days, I want to examine this passage one verse at a time so that we will better understand how spiritually militant we should be. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Paul is at the end of this tremendous letter and is giving his final and crucial instructions as to our battle as Christians. Notice that he doesn’t say, “Finally, brother, take to the streets in protest!” He points us to our only strength, the Lord and his might! I don't know where you are concerning COVID but I haven’t contracted the disease as of this writing. I realize that it is a real thing and that it can be deadly. I don’t doubt its potency and know friends whose lives it has taken. I do know that there is little one can do to protect themselves from it. One couple who is close to us, friendship-wise, was kept prisoner in their home for six months. Their city was very strict on what they could do and where they could go. After all of that time in what amounted to house arrest, they both got COVID. TWICE. The second time put them both in the hospital for days. Both in grave condition and the wife eventually died. The husband was recently released. How can we be strong against an invisible enemy? We can do our best to take the right medications, use gel to wash our hands, and keep masks over our faces. But when that disease comes there is no way to stop it. Should we be prepared? Of course. Can we stop the battle? No. But how can we fight it in our strength? We can’t. Similarly, we cannot stop the attack on our spiritual lives. What we can do is be strong in the Lord, but it will take work and dedication on our part as we trust totally in His strength. We could look at several Bible characters who went into the battle in God's strength. I think of David versus Goliath. David came into the battle scene rather innocently. He went to take food to his brothers. When he got to the front, however, he saw a strange thing happening. There on the other side of the battle line was this ghastly figure of a man shouting profanities against God to the Israeli soldiers. There was a challenge, “Come and fight me! Whoever wins, wins the battle for the entire army!” It seemed to be a no-win situation. The man was SO HUGE. When David saw and heard this he went into battle mode, even though he had never seen a battle or had he been to battle school before. David knew that there was a cause to be defended and he took the action necessary to defend that cause. We know and love that story. Why? Because a kid killed the big bad giant! That is what the world sees. We see David saying to that strange giant, "You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied." David took action when the rest of the army was in retreat, and David’s cause was worth fighting for. We, as believers in Jesus Christ, must do the same with our spiritual battle. I believe that many of us don't see ourselves in a battle for survival. Do you realize that you are a target? You are an enemy? You are in a war! Thus you and I need to be strong in the Lord, and the power of his might. We dare not trust our powers or our battle readiness. We cannot think that, alone, we will be strong against our enemy. He is powerful and he has had thousands of years of experience in war. He has his army and they too are well trained in the struggle. You and I have a tremendous advantage against our adversary. We know the verse well, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” But so often we aren’t aware of how close to defeat that we are. We don’t know that the devil and his minions want to eliminate us. They want to silence us. They want to harm and kill us. So, these next verses will teach us the weapons that we have at our disposal and we will help us to better understand our arsenal.