Good Morning Beautiful Friend,
I pray that all is well with you this morning and that you are feeling excited and ready to take on the week ahead of us! Ready or not though, I hope my words bring you a little hope and encouragement this morning! Grab your coffee/tea and let’s chat.❤️
My thoughts today are inspired by my pastor’s sermon yesterday and a passage of scripture in Ephesians. It’s one of our favorite passages as Christians that can both encourage and convict us in our daily walk with God-
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens. For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand. Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish 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. Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. Ephesians 6:10-18 CSB
Whew! There’s so much to unpack in that passage! Never fear, I am only going to pull a few key points out to write about so you’re able to finish reading before your cup runs out of coffee/tea.
Can we stop on that first verse for just a minute? “Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength.” Isn’t it a huge blessing to us that we serve a God who is living and able to strengthen us by his vast strength? As if this wasn’t enough for us, He also gives us armor to fight against the world. While we are to put on the whole armor of God, I want to focus in on just two of those pieces today- the shield of faith and sword of the Spirit.
Let’s start with the shield of faith. Satan shoots so many flaming arrows at us all day long doesn’t he? Those arrows can come in so many different forms- disappointment, self doubt, situations that we have little control over, fear, and the list goes on. We have protection from those arrows though when we are holding tight to our faith- our shield of faith. Our faith in God can help us in so many situations but we have to activate that faith and really rely on God instead of passively saying we have faith in God but living a reality that is full of worry and fear. Something else to note when it comes to the shield is that the shield only protects the front of us which means when we turn around and retreat from the flaming arrows our shield isn’t very effective. We need to be facing the arrows that Satan shoots at us so, with our shield of faith, we are able to deflect them from ourselves and our family.
So we’ve talked about using our shield to defend ourselves and our family but we also need to make sure we are on the offense with our sword of the spirit. The Bible doesn’t leave us guessing what sword we are to fight with- it’s pretty clear in telling us that our offensive weapon is to be the word of God. This means in order to fight our battles, we need to know what our Bible says. We also need to be teaching our children what the Bible says so that they are prepared to use their sword too.
Where are you at today friend? Are you facing your battles with your shield of faith and fighting with your sword of the spirit?
Praying that your coffee/tea is strong and your faith is stronger!
