The shield of faith!

(Ephesians 6:16) “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;”

God is so magnificent and so merciful and full of grace that I almost cannot contain my excitement. The Bible has much to do with faith. In fact there are three pivoting words that will always appear for the believer if we scratch the surface of God’s Word, and we needn’t scratch deep to find them; they are “faith, hope and love”! They are sisters and inseparable, they co-exists in perfect harmony. What we need to learn is how to use them wisely, which will bring glory to God and will then make us beneficiaries of His divine nature in and through none other than our great Saviour Jesus Christ the Lord.

But so many seem to misunderstand the application of faith needed for daily living. Why would it be so? Then the penny drops, it is the “shield of faith that we are instructed to use to extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one”. It is a great weapon and has immense power, so for it to be nullified the father of lies sow seeds of doubt amongst the “fields of faith” hoping to confuse all those who wield the shield. This is a tactic we must not be ignorant of.

Faith is a mighty weapon, it is part of our armour and we have been instructed to employ it with vigor. “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;” (Ephesians 6:16)

Is it our faith, should be our first question? Initially it is not as it belongs to God and we as sinners were not entitled to its saving power. But once we have received it, it now does belong to us: - who must take up the shield of faith? Well we must! We use faith to overcome all doubts. How great is our God? Praise his majestic name for He is full of wisdom. His ways are far above the normal run of the mill mundane psychotherapy, we must start to live it out. It is imperative for us to be effective with our “shield of faith”.

Instead of asking why this is happening, I don’t understand it! Let us rather see it as an opportunity that God is affording us to test our own hearts through the assessment, as we are tested, we must be verified to see what we are made of. It has to happen!

I am not for one minute looking to temp fate in that sense as we are clearly taught by the Lord Jesus on how we should pray; “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13) – therefore our prayer and attitude must always be to avoid trial and temptation, but when the time for our test arrives, we must learn to welcome it; in fact we are instructed to “count it all joy”, think of it like this a student studies for an exam, they prepare with long hours and much effort, but the day does eventually arrive for the exam. It is never a great day but the hope of qualifying drives that person to excel and pass the examination.

Where we have got it wrong is we think that there has to be sin in our lives if trial is upon us, not so! It is needed for us to change and become more like our glorious Saviour. When we are then tested think of it like this; we have found favour from God. He is now calling out His children and saying to us that what you now will face is for our benefit, be happy because this affliction when passed will make you more like my Son.

Without faith it will be an impossible task, let us remember our astute brothers teachings; “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (James 1:2-4)    

Great Father God please give us ears to hear, Amen!

Signing off

Tyrone