January 17, 2017
Be Prepared for 2017:
Shield of Faith
Shield of Faith
Stand firm then, with the belt of
truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and
with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of
peace. In addition to all this, 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. Ephesians 6:14-17
The shield of faith, as
you can imagine, is critical for defense against all kinds of weapons. But this
scripture specifically lists its use against Satan’s flaming arrows. Let’s
think about the shields and flaming arrows used at the time this passage was
written.
The Romans used arrows
with hollow shafts which they filled with a flammable liquid. When they fired
these arrows, the tips would be on fire. Upon impact the shafts would break
causing the flammable liquid to spread and ignite instantly. Sounds like a
recipe for destruction.
Interestingly, the Romans
used wooden shields in that day. As you can imagine, if an enemy’s flaming
arrow stuck in a wooden shield or spread flammable liquids on it upon impact,
it might all go up in flames. Then where would their defense be?
So it was common practice
before going into battle for the Romans to soak their shields in water until they were wet all
the way through. This actually served to “extinguish all the flaming arrows”
which hit them. I never knew that. I just assumed things just bounced off of
the shields.
So how does that scenario
apply to us today spiritually?
Ephesians says that the
shield we carry is the shield of faith. Our faith in our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ is our main defense against Satan. How can we grow our faith?
“Consequently,
faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word
about Christ.” Romans 10:17 NIV
Our faith increases by
our hearing, internalizing, and putting into practice the word of God –
Scripture. If we are not in the word, we cannot expect our faith to mature.
Ephesians
5:26 suggests that the word of God is also like cleansing water. So
if our faith – the shield – is maturing through our study of Scripture and if
we are soaking it in the Lord’s water – Scripture – then we can expect the
shield to extinguish fiery darts from Satan as in days of old.
I found
an interesting website by Rick Renner that talks about this at length if you’d
like to look at it. I found it to be fascinating.
Lord, I love you with all my heart. I believe
in you. You are Yahweh – Jehovah – Almighty God. It is by this faith in you
that I know I am protected from Satan’s advances on my life. Help me to
continually soak up your word so that my shield will be that much stronger
against evil.
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