How blessed is the man...in whose heart are the highways to Zion!

My Dad liked to go hunting in the fall. He hunted squirrel, rabbit, and pheasant, and he used a 12-gauge shotgun. Deer hunters, by contrast, use rifles or bow and arrows to hunt. Other small animals are caught in traps. Fishermen use a baited hook or a net. You need to use a weapon appropriate to what you're hunting.

It occurred to me recently that the armor of God listed in Ephesians 6 may be seen not only as comprehensive coverage for the human body, but also as comprehensive defense against different kinds of attack. The enemy of our souls has a wide variety of weapons to use against us, and assuredly God does not want us to be vulnerable to any of them.

God has provided for us the "belt of truth" because one of Satan's most powerful tools are his lies. Jesus said, "there is no truth in him . . . and he is a liar and the father of lies" (John 8:44). He is a deceiver (Rev. 12:9). Whenever we are wounded, he is there whispering to us that there must be something so terribly wrong with us that we deserve the pain. When we are tempted, he is there to "assure" us that what we are thinking of doing will be of no consequence. When we are angry, he validates our "right" to exact vengeance or at least hold a grudge. When we are afraid, he has no shortage of worst-case scenarios to play in our minds. How desperately we need to know the truth! It is only when we know the truth that we can discern untruth.

God has given us the breastplate of righteousness, because we need to know that our righteousness is not our own, but a gift from God as a result of Jesus' victory over sin (see Romans 5:17-19). We are sinners; we do things every day that miss the mark. The enemy of our souls will tell us every time that we are bad, that God can't or won't love us, that we will never make it into heaven because we're just not good enough. He will pile up unnecessary guilt to hinder our testimony and ministry. If only I could remember that though I am not good enough, Jesus is, and He lives in me. "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

God has supplied us with shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace, because everywhere we go is the battlefield. Everywhere we go is somewhere where the gospel is needed. Everywhere we go is a place where we can impart God's blessing of peace. The gospel is applicable in any and every situation where peace is disturbed. In conflict situations, bringing the gospel to bear by accepting responsibility for your part of the problem, repenting, and asking forgiveness, and forgiving the other person for his part of the problem, is the way to peace. There are a myriad of other circumstances that can rob us of our peace - busy-ness, temptation, disorder, disunity, disease, to name just a few. In all of these, the gospel can be applied. Doing things the way God commands may not always remedy the situation, for example, in the case of physical illness, but it can assure our hearts that God is present, interested, and active on our behalf. As Paul said concerning temptation, "God who is faithful . . . will provide the way of escape, so that you will be able to endure it" (1 Cor. 10:13).

God has equipped us with a shield of faith for the times we have doubts. Indeed, faith cannot be operative in the absence of doubt. But our enemy has a way of overloading doubts upon us. His "fiery darts" of doubt lead us to question the motives of others, as well as God's motives, and character, and word. He can ask us, as he asked Eve, "Did God really say . . . ?" (see Gen. 3:1), casting doubt on both His word and His intentions toward us. Or he can say, as he said to Jesus in the wilderness, "It's okay to do this, look, the Bible says . . ." (see Matt. 4:6), thus twisting God's word and our thinking. The shield of faith can extinguish these fiery darts, but only if we choose to use it. The shield is not armor that is strapped on and operative at all times, but must be picked up an directed toward the incoming missile.

God has outfitted us with the helmet of salvation for our fears. When we are in peril of any kind, we cry out for someone to save us. God created us with the emotion of fear for our protection. In order for fear to be justified, however, the danger must be powerful to actually hurt us, and imminent, that is, threatening us right now. The enemy of our souls plays upon our fears, using our imagination to blur the lines between what is real and powerful and what is not. Just as we cried out to Jesus to save us from our sins when we became believers, so now we are called to cry out to Him whenever we are afraid. As David the Psalmist said, "When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You" (Psalm 56:3). If Jesus can save us from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:9), he can save us from anything.

God has granted us the use of the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, for the distortions of truth that abound in today's culture. Nearly every sinful act has some euphemism applied to it today to make it seem acceptable. Words have been redefined to mean what they clearly have never meant before. Government protects despicable speech and depictions, and is close to enshrining deviant behavior not just as acceptable, but as worthy of special protection. The enemy of our souls would have us be swallowed up by the quicksand of deception he has created. We need a sure compass if we are to find our way through and out of this moral swamp we live in. The Apostle John wrote to the young men because "you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one" (1 Jn. 2:14). The word of God is the truth before which the enemy, his lies, his guilt, his distresses, his doubts, his fears, and his distortions must fall. If we are to have the strength to overcome him, the word of God must abide in us. And we must have it ready - a sword in its sheath is useless.

After describing the armor of God, Paul speaks of being alert and persevering in prayer. We must be vigilant, for we never know which of his weapons the enemy will use against us. Dad told me once that he did a little deer hunting when he was young, and the only deer he ever got was one he shot by accident when it startled him awake from his dozing. We might not be so lucky.

© J.H.Nichols 2010

Click to subscribe.