Believers in Jesus,
Do you ever feel like you’re just always getting your hind quarters handed to you in life?
Do you ever feel like you are always playing defense and can’t seem to get ahead in the game to make an impact?
Do you ever feel like you might have this Christianity thing somewhat figured out only to have doubts come at you like fiery darts?
Do you ever feel like you’re in a war but always on the defense?
Are you jumpin’ up and down right now yelling “Amen, sister!” and thinking “She understands me.”?
Ok……now…….hard question……
Are you in your Bible every day?
And I see the shoulders drooping. And I hear the mental exasperation. “Seriously! I thought she understood me. I don’t have time for that! God understands me. He knows. I’m BUSY! Besides the Bible is confusing. I just want it explained to me.”
Hang on a hot second….please, please, please!
So I was going through a study in Ephesians this morning about the armor of God. Yes, the armor of God. Seriously don’t stop reading!!! Don’t roll your eyes and say “Ugh, I know about this! I’ve learned it since I was a toddler.” I get it! I do too!
We all know about it. We’ve sung songs about it and colored pictures about it since preschool Sunday school. My kids even had a cute little plastic version they used to wear. We’ve all heard teaching about it….lots of them. But thanks be to God, the Bible is a living, breathing thing and fresh inspiration comes through it every day.
Ok, stick with me…….. Sing along if you want………We’ve got the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the boots of peace, the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation.
These are all for defense.
The belt of truth protects your, ahem…… undercarriage. The bowls, the guts.
The breastplate of righteousness protects your heart and your breath.
The boots of peace protect your feet and make you able to move with agility and not stumble.
The shield of faith protects all of you as you hold it up to block those fiery darts as they come at you.
The helmet of salvation protects your brain, your mind, your thoughts.
“Wait,” you say, “you forgot the last one.”
Nope, didn’t forget. It’s just different.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
Here’s the difference…..a sword is offensive.
If you go on the field of battle with all the other gear on and don’t have your sword, you are going to be jumping all around trying to protect yourself but you ain’t going to be able to get any licks in. You can’t win a war with just defense (unless God wins it for you….think Moses, Joshua and Gideon – go read about them in your Bible. It’s ok. I’ll wait.)
So, if we get up every morning and put on the armor of God but we stop before we strap on the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God…..we ain’t got game.
Ok, here’s the deal….. (please don’t filet me)……..we also are really good about reading about the Bible rather than reading the actual Bible.
There are so many amazing books daily devotionals and blogs on so many different topics about life. And there is nothing wrong with these amazing books. Others have dug and studied the Bible and then written these fabulous and helpful books. They even often write the “address” of the verse in the book so we feel more like we are in the Word.
But we’re not actually in the Word.
We HAVE to dig in the Word for ourselves.
I know! It’s hard to know where to start!
Let’s start with this. As you read your daily devotions or those amazing books, EVERY TIME they put a verse address in there, you stop, open your Bible and read the verse……but not just the one verse but the context before and after. Our Bibles have these amazing sections in them. Instead of reading just the verse, read the section or the chapter.
So…the address of the verses I am writing about today is Ephesians 6:10-17.
Challenge……go crack open your Bible. Read Ephesians 6.
Get your pen out. Mark it up. Write questions, ponderings, revelations next to verses as God speaks to you through His Word. Ponder what a Roman soldier looked like in his armor. Ponder why God wants us to wear the armor. Did you know that “the armor of God” is the armor worn by God? You can find it in Isaiah 11:5, 52:7, 59:17. I didn’t know that until today. I learned that part from Margaret Feinberg in her study “Six Feet Back Satan!” who learned it from Snodgrass, Klyne, “Ephesians: The NIV Application Commentary: Zondervan 1996 pg. 339. And I went and looked it up in my Bible, and I read verses before and after and pondered and asked God questions. (See, learning things from others is AWESOME, but then we go and dig in even more for ourselves)
And I KNOW you are busy! Holy smokes do I get it. We live in a world of COVID and everyone is on top of each other at home and we have jobs and kids and life…..and the holidays are coming up….and, and, and, and…….but we have time to go on Facebook. We have time to watch t.v.. We have time to scroll mindlessly through things on our phones. And none of that helps us with the battle. None of it helps us go on the offensive.
But God’s Word does.
Tired of getting your hind quarters handed to you? Tired of just playing defense?
It’s time to go on offense y’all!
Crack open that Bible and dig in!
A Beautiful Mess 