SHield of Faith

Day 4, The Armor of God

 In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Ephesians 6:16 (NLT)

              My parents went on a week-long vacation when I was in elementary school. I was nine and my brother was seven. Since we were too young to stay home alone, my mom asked my aunt to stay with us for a week; the same aunt who made us call her Mentor when we were first learning her name.

              That week was super fun, and she let us get away with way more than my mom would have. One memory I have that has never left was the afternoon we convinced her to join us for a pinecone fight. I asked my younger brother if he wanted to be on my aunt’s team, and he said he wanted to be alone. So, we all fought alone, chose our ammunition, and assumed our various positions.

              I chose the playhouse on stilts where I could throw from the windows and shield myself behind the walls. My brother hid behind the pecan tree in the middle of the yard and used the trunk as his shield. And my aunt found an old, 4x8 sheet of spongey Luan and tried to use it as her shield as she moved around the yard.

              At first, the battle seemed fair and all of us were shielded from the hits. Then we all ran out of ammunition and had to scavenge from the yard without getting hit. My aunt showed no mercy. Not only did she use her hardest throw, she found pinecones that had not opened yet and were super prickly and as hard as a rock. Thankfully I missed most of the assault, but my brother wasn’t so lucky. He had red, pokey welts all over his arms and legs and brought the game to an end with his endless tears and anger. If he had only stayed behind the shield of the tree trunk, he could have avoided the hazardous projectiles. But he moved into the open and became a moving, unprotected target who was plummeted again and again.

              Paul instructs the Ephesians to hold up the shield of faith. Shields of that day were large enough to hide behind and super heavy to carry. Just like the shields in our pinecone game, the shields they carried into battle were essential for protection against the guaranteed projectiles.

              We will have fiery darts thrown at us from the enemy, and they will likely come from every direction possible. If we don’t intentionally reach for our shield of faith, the darts will hit over and over again, stinging us deeply to the core. According to Hebrews 11:1 (NLT), “Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.” We are to take up our shield of faith, the one that reminds us of who God is and whose we really are. The one who has protected us before and will protect us again. The one that trusts even when we cannot see and takes a step because we trust God to make a way.

              We need to trust God to fight our battles, but we also have to ask him to join the fight. When we are in it alone or fighting with the weapons of this world, the fiery darts will hit our weakest, most vulnerable parts. And they will sting extra bad. And with our shield of faith…we lose our faith. Lose our hope. And lose our trust in God.

Do the Heart Work

1.      What does faith mean to you?

2.      What truths do you hold onto in the battle when the darts start to fly?

3.      What does it mean to hold up your shield of faith?

Digging Deeper

Read Joshua 5:2-9

At that time the Lord told Joshua, “Make flint knives and circumcise this second generation of Israelites.” So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the entire male population of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth.

Joshua had to circumcise them because all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died in the wilderness. Those who left Egypt had all been circumcised, but none of those born after the Exodus, during the years in the wilderness, had been circumcised. The Israelites had traveled in the wilderness for forty years until all the men who were old enough to fight in battle when they left Egypt had died. For they had disobeyed the Lord, and the Lord vowed he would not let them enter the land he had sworn to give us—a land flowing with milk and honey. So Joshua circumcised their sons—those who had grown up to take their fathers’ places—for they had not been circumcised on the way to the Promised Land. After all the males had been circumcised, they rested in the camp until they were healed.

  Then the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the shame of your slavery in Egypt.” So that place has been called Gilgal to this day.

              I know some of you are like, what did I just read? But imagine the amount of faith, followed with obedience, that it took for Joshua to follow through with the circumcision of all those adult men. Ouch. But soon after they did this, God gave them the victory over Jericho by walking around it then shouting. That took so much faith. Notice the pattern. Surrender. Obedience. Trust. Faith.

If You Get Spare Time 

              Spend some time in prayer or journaling about when your faith has grown the most. Was it when everything was going well? Or when your world seemed to fall apart?

              Wielding the shield of faith is so much more than belief. Its intentional surrender and obedience to Christ. And when we do that, we are building memorials of God’s faithfulness in our life. With each one, our shield grows stronger and keeps the darts from penetrating.

              Are you working on building your faith?