Ephesians 6:16 “In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”

Ephesians 6:11 tells us to put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. We are reminded in verse 12 that we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Today I want to focus on the fourth piece of God’s armor, the shield of faith. When Paul painted the picture of a shield he was referring to the one a roman soldier would carry. This was a large four and a half feet long by two and a half feet wide rectangular shield, constructed of wood and edged with iron. The large size provided considerable protection for the body of each individual soldier and fulfilled a strategic role by becoming a giant portable wall. Individual shields could be locked together to form a wall that would help keep the line from breaking in an attack or forcing the enemy forward in a uniformed advance. We often picture this fight against the enemy as a solo one where we are found fighting alone. Yet in Philippians 1:27 Paul reminds us that the fight of faith involves standing united in faith against the fiery attacks of the enemy: “27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.” Jesus said even the gates of hell would not stand against His church, Matthew 16:16-19. One of the most deadly and destructive weapons of ancient combat were arrows but they were rendered useless by soldiers with shields. So in an effort to remove the effectiveness of the shield these projectiles were dipped in tar and set alight. When they hit the protective wall of shields they would ignite and burn away the defense causing panic. Satan often wars against the church by firing flaming arrows of malignancy designed to spread and destroy. These fiery arrows are shot at the heart, mind, and body, piercing our thoughts, situations, and desires with the temptation to sin. Satan shoots his fiery darts of deception, delusion, dissatisfaction, depression, diversion, doubt, disappointment, discouragement, and delay trying to spread distrust and despair in the ranks of God’s people. His relentless bombarding with these flaming projectiles should awaken us to the scheming craftiness of our enemy. He desires not only to hurt us but to preoccupy and distract us with his fiery eruptions, causing us to discard our defense. In ancient times when fiery arrows embedded themselves into shields and began to burn a frightened soldier would be tempted to throw down his burning shield. This would leave himself, and those around him, unprotected from arrows and spears and the result was death and defeat. Such a deadly weapon needed a formidable defense and this is where the power of the shield comes in. Not only is it a big shield it was covered with layers of leather that could be soaked in water to extinguish the fiery pitch of any burning arrows. Before the battle soldiers would soak their shields in water. The shield of faith will extinguish the fire because it is soaked with the water of God’s word, we are not standing behind our own effort but His word. Satan’s arrows are designed to wear us down and destroy our relationship with Jesus, to cause us to panic and throw away the best protection we have. When we take the time to stop and review our walk with the Lord there can be no denying the realities of life, we are under a fiery attack. Sin is difficult to overcome it has a disastrous effect on our relationship with Jesus and sometimes seems to be a potentially overwhelming force. This can wear us down and cause us to doubt until we come back to our faith, the basic Gospel message, John 3:17 “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him”. Today you may be under a fiery attack but in Jesus you can live a faithful life because the One who provides the shield is faithful. The power of the shield is found in a God who is faithful even when we prove ourselves to be totally unfaithful. God:

•             Provided His Son as a payment.

•             Punished our sins in Christ so that we could be right in His sight.

•             Purchased our freedom and made us eligible for the gift of eternal life

When it comes to our protection, God has done everything, Psalm 91:4 says: “He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart”. Our faith is in our Father, He is our shield and when we see the power of our protection we realize that faith will prevail. Situations will arise which cause us to question our faith we will be targeted and struck by the flaming arrows of the evil one. Yet we don’t need to start panicking, instead we just need to have faith in the shield of God. The power and peace come as we trust that our eternal life is not dependent or hindered by the way we perform. Our place in heaven is secure, even when we mess up in this life, you are covered with the feathery wings of the Father, gathered, protected and loved. You are the precious possession of the Prince of Peace, the One who snatched you out of the clutches of evil and presented you with eternal life. The shield of faith stands firm on the foundation of the everlasting love of Jesus Christ. Have there been times, now or in your past, when you feel yourself being crushed by the guilt of your own short-comings? Maybe because of a secret sin you seem to repeat, or because you see no growth in your life, or because you question God’s love for you. There are times when we get so bogged down in the glue of guilt but Christ says stop and stand behind the shield of reality. Christianity is not about meeting a certain criteria it’s all about having faith in a living Savior. Yes we must strive to be like Christ to conform to His character, but all along grace is still the priority of the day. Grace means that God looks at you through the eyes of Jesus and the flames of self-imposed guilt can be extinguished only through Christ. Maybe there have been times now or in the past when you feel that your faith will fail, that life is too difficult to bear. Perhaps you are having trouble coming to terms with the death of a loved one. Or you find yourself faltering under a financial burden. Or your marriage is more mess than magic. Maybe you are in the midst of watching your children disobey and turn from the Lord. In the tribulation and trauma Jesus says “Hold up the shield, stop and look at the reality”. As bearers of the shield of faith we can know that temptations will never stop being a part of our life, but we can also be certain that these temptations do not have to rule our response to God. When we trust in the saving work of Jesus Christ we can stand secure in Christ every time the evil one tries to make us hesitant and hold back in our relationship with Jesus. We can stand secure when we fall because of His faithfulness. As warriors in the battlefield we stand secure because the battle is Christ’s and the victory is Christ’s. We have, We can, and We will be able to extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one. The shield of faith will not let us down because the shield of faith stands secure on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 5:8-9

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

We are not immune from Satan’s attacks against us, either within or without. Often we leave the door open to Satan by our spiritual weakness or lack of faith. Peter’s admonition leaves no doubt as to the warfare in which we are engaged. Satan is a master at his evil craft; he has been at it a long time. In 2 Corinthians 2:11 Paul reminds the church “Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” To know the things we need to beware of will strengthen our position in the battle, “To be forewarned is to be fore-armed!” Peter as he reminds us to stand firm in our faith reveals the reality that we are not the only ones suffering. Today in our progressive culture we have made the purpose of life pleasure and we have little time for persecution. When Satan came asking to strip Job through suffering he was convinced that Job’s faith would fold, but here is when we see the power of persecution, you see suffering can silence Satan. Lions hunt by separating those they hunt from the herd, Peter reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering because he doesn’t want you to become separated. Satan wants to convince you that you are all alone and that it is hopeless because then you will give in and give up. As we continue with part 2 we are reminded of some of Satan’s devices that we dare not take lightly.

• DIVERSION

Satan loves to distract us so that we turn from God’s purposes to our pleasures. I John 2:15 reminds us: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”  Jesus said: “No man can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Matthew 6:24. Today in our desire for satisfaction we are trading the Savior for the temporary shinny things of this world. To Judas the thirty pieces of silver seemed so appealing before the betrayal; only after the trade did he realize their worth. The things of the world are like that; to covetous eyes they sparkle and shine and we give up things of much greater worth to obtain them. The only way to weigh the worth is by comparing the cost. Today in our mad rush to get we fail to realize what we give. We turn from the truth for the temporary trinkets. Satan wants to divert us onto the road of destruction, today in our attempts to get love we sacrifice our lives, we trade our bodies for beauty, we give sex to feel special, we give all to get attention, we give up holiness to get ahead and to obtain love we give in to lust. To stand firm in the faith means we must turn to truth, true riches are found in the Redeemer it’s not about the money it’s about the Master. Has Satan distracted and diverted you, what are you trading?

• DOUBT

Satan’s first plan of attack with Adam and Eve was to sow the seeds of doubt, Genesis 3:1 “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” Doubt is designed to cause you to distrust because then you will disassociate. When Jesus rose from the dead he revealed himself to His disciples and asked them a pointed question we need to ask ourselves today: “And He said to them, ’Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts.” Luke 24:38. When Peter took his eyes off of the Savior he began to sink and Jesus said to him: “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” Matthew 14:31 Today are you focusing on the foundation of your faith, on The Lord or a lie?

• DISAPPOINTMENT

We will all deal with disappointment sin this life the question becomes how we will deal with them? Most of us have a plan of how things should go and when God doesn’t fit into our plan He becomes the problem and focus of our disappointment. Satan loves to play the selfish card and convince us that life should be about self, he knows that is he can get us to exchange God’s plan for ours it’s only a matter of time before disappointment derails us. Judas had an expectation of Jesus, that He would follow man’s plan not the Fathers.  Disappointment was how Satan got to Judas. When he realized that Jesus wasn’t going to overthrow the Roman government and give him his place in the kingdom his attitude dissolved into disappointment. Disappointment caused him to depart, he was determined that his actions were justified. Today many depart from Jesus during times of disappointment, we justify our actions using the phrase “I deserve to be happy” Like Judas, Satan can convince us to focus everything through the lens of self so that all we see is our disappointment. It’s amazing that while Jesus was on his knees serving Judas like a slave, washing the dirt from his feet, Judas felt justified to make plans to betray Him. Be careful about what disappoints you in serving God. Jesus said in Luke 7:23, “God blesses those who do not turn away because of me” The devil can use disappointment to snare you and devour you.

• DISCOURAGEMENT

Even though God delivered His people from Pharaoh they still got stuck in the muck and mire of discouragement.  Numbers 21:4-5 “Then they journeyed from Mount Hor by the Way of the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; and the soul of the people became very discouraged on the way. “And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and our soul loathes this worthless bread.”  Discouragement caused them to despise Gods provisions, instead of living in wonder they saw His bread as worthless and began to whine. Are you discouraged today? What are you focusing on, the circumstances or Christ?

• DELAY

In our give it to me now world we get very distressed by any delay. In Daniel 10 we are told of a delay that Daniel experienced because of demonic activity:  “In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel. Its message was true and it concerned a great war. The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. 2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over.”  We are then told the reason for the delay “12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come.”

Are you waiting on the Lord today, delay does not need to result in despair.