Real Hope: Armour of GodÀpẹrẹ

Prepared Protection

My family loves nerf battles. We each take a nerf gun, load up on bullets, and chase each other. One time, our eldest son grabbed a beanbag and used it as a shield to avoid getting hit. As a beanbag on the floor, it doesn’t protect anything. But when he recognised it was big enough to protect him, he held it up and it became a shield. Our faith is the same.

Ephesians talks of taking up our shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows. We can’t leave our faith on the shelf, only acknowledging it when we are being bombarded by arrows. We need to take up our faith and actively live it out. To fight the battle, we need to prepare beforehand. We need to sit at God’s feet, seek His heart and revere Him for who He is – God Almighty. We need to spend time in God’s Word otherwise we won’t have a deep understanding of His character or His will. Unless we seek the Holy Spirit and press into Him, we can’t expect to have ears that hear His gentle whisper.

Like a shield, when we recognise the power of our faith and recognise the power of God’s love, we will have protection in the battle. When the fiery darts of the enemy come, our shield will be ready to wield the Word of God and speak God’s Word to our situation, declaring that He is God above it all. The moments of intimacy with the Holy Spirit will mean we’ll be able hear His quiet whisper. And our times of sitting at the feet of Jesus mean that we will confidently call on His name, the name above every other name and know that just as He was victorious over death, He will be victorious over our situation.

Written by LEILA ARMSTRONG