The Shield of Faith
Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. – Ephesians 6:14-16 NKJV.
This past week a grandson of one of our church members committed suicide by hanging himself. Within a day of hearing that awfully tragic news I heard of another young man near our community who committed suicide. What is it that drove these young men to think that suicide was the only way out? How did the thought of killing themselves first take form inside their hearts?
Those thoughts of evil: of suicide, of hate, of anger, of pride, of lust, of lies, of deceit, and others do sometimes come from within our own flesh and our own desires. But much of the time those thoughts of evil come in the form of fiery arrows straight from the pit of hell itself. God would never want anything evil in your life. So, the evil thoughts must come from the father of lies (John 8:44), the devil.
We can defeat, quench, put out the fire of the thoughts that the devil sends into our minds. It doesn’t matter how long you have been a believer, it doesn’t matter how faithful to the Lord that you are, it doesn’t matter how much of the Bible you have read or memorized, and it doesn’t matter how mature you are in your faith; regardless, the devil will still be firing his flaming arrows of evil toward you.
This past week that old devil has certainly been busy and I have had to ward off many of those flaming arrows he was sending into my mind. When you are under attack in that way it is a battle, and it is spiritually tiring. The devil keeps sending those arrows trying to wear you down until you either win the battle or you act upon one of those evil thoughts he has placed into your mind. Charles Spurgeon, the great preachers of the late 1800s once preached, “There is no part of a man which is not secure. Although Satan will certainly attack him in every direction, yet, let him come where he will.” Yes, the devil will attack us in every way that he can, but we may not be as strong in our faith as Charles Spurgeon.
To win the battle against the flaming arrows of evil we must have the “shield of faith!” Every believer has some measure of faith, but we must actively strive to increase our faith. Ephesians 3:20 indicates that some believers have more faith than others: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” How can we have more faith? Romans 10:17 tells us: “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”
When you are under spiritual attack by that old devil you must “above all” raise the “shield of fatih!” Turn to God in prayer seeking His empowerment to energize your personal “shield of faith!” Pick up your Bible and read. Run the verses of Scripture you have memorized through your mind. But long before you are faced with a severe spiritual attack by the evil one you should be attempting to increase your faith by immersing your life in the Word of God as we are told in Romans 10:17.