Beauty in the Mess
The most beautiful times of my life have always been the ones filled with the most chaos. Even though turmoil surrounded me, I found God’s peace that surpasses all understanding, and His victory was mine. But this wasn’t easy; it was a real battle. The enemy would throw darts, and I had to keep choosing to pick up my shield of faith and swing the sword of the Spirit, and not allow it to hang.
Imagine facing an army with no armor and a target on you. We can think of one individual in the Bible who did this, David. And yet the reality is, David may not have had physical armor on, but he did have armor. Over and over again, David had learned to put on God’s Spiritual armor, and He was able to go out and fight with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 6 shows us what God’s armor is. But it is not enough to know what it is. We need to put it on and use our shield of faith and our sword of the Spirit. We can’t just sit back! Passivity is what led to so many of my failures. When I’ve shrunk back and let the enemy throw arrows without raising my shield of faith, these are the times that I’ve been hit and have left the battlefield, dragging my sword and usually limping along the way.
But when I’ve raised my shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, the Spirit’s fire has risen within me, and I’ve taken the challenges head-on. However, when I look back on these victories, I often forget about the struggle it took to get there. I only see the victories.
Today, as we all fight our own battles, let’s remember to wear and use the full armor of Christ. Let us not shrink back and take ourselves off the battlefield until Christ has had the full victory in our lives!
The Armor of God
Ephesians 6:10-18
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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. 13 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. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 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 Lord’s people.
