February 10

The Armor of God

            Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.  Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Ephesians 6:13-17

          One of the things that we regularly had to do at the IDD center was make sure that our clients were wearing clothing that was appropriate to their surroundings.  We would show up to the door to pick them up at -40 degrees and they would come out wearing flip flops, shorts and no coat.  We would pick them up for Special Olympics track and field practice to find them in multiple layers of sweatpants and sweaters.  Sometimes it was because they forgot where they put something and just decided to sacrifice comfort for being on schedule.  Sometimes it was simply that they did not see a correlation between what they were wearing and the weather.  Sometimes it was that they did not get cold, their physical senses did not send signals to their brain warning them that something was wrong.  Theoretically they could walk around in dangerous temperatures, feeling just fine, until the moment that their body shut down.  A significant part of our job was to help them dress appropriately for whatever they were going to be facing for the day.

            How do we win in the daily struggles of life?  Paul lays out a fascinating image directly after he talks about our struggles being against spiritual forces.  Most people do not put on armor in their daily routines of life.  The only time that armor is worn is when the individual knows that they are preparing to fight and they know that it will help them survive.  If there is no battle then armor is useless and cumbersome. 

            To those who know they have a spiritual conflict ahead of them, Paul offers this advice:

·         Cling tight to truth.  Be confident that God knows you and loves you and created you for a specific purpose.  He calls you His own and gave His all so that you could spend eternity with Him.

·         Cover your heart with righteousness.  Let purity of heart be a defining characteristic.  The world may laugh and call you simple, but it is the clearest way to see God.

·         Wherever you go, speak the good news of peace.  Jesus has come to reconcile man to God and brother to brother.

·         Let your heart, words and deed reflect that you believe that what God has said is true, whether it has come to pass or not.

·         Know that you have been saved from sin and death.  Remember that God desires that all His children would enter into the same salvation.

·         Know and use scripture to defeat the accusations, lies and doubts that will assault your heart and mind.

Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, scripture.  If that is the model that we present to our children and the legacy that we pass on to them, we will have done our jobs as parents well.

           

A moment to reflect:

Take a few minutes to visualize putting on the Armor of God.  Journal about what that is like.