Friday, January 14, 2022
In addition to all of these, hold up the
shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Ephesians 6:16
There is a lot of teaching around
about what constitutes genuine faith.
And, if Paul’s analogy of a shield
holds up, that’s the way it should be.
We all have faith. You and I are
exercising a form of faith right now.
You might be sitting in a chair that your faith believes will hold you
up, or turning on a light switch expecting you won’t be incinerated by the
electricity. The point is not whether we will use faith, but to what or to whom we will direct that faith. A man bought a new hunting dog. Eager to see how he would perform; he took
him out to track a bear. No sooner had
they gotten into the woods than the dog picked up the trail. Suddenly he stopped, sniffed the ground, and
headed in a new direction. He had caught
the scent of a deer that had crossed
the bear's path. A few moments later he
halted again, this time smelling a rabbit
that had crossed the path of the deer.
And so, on and on it went until finally the breathless hunter caught up
with his dog, only to find him barking triumphantly down the hole of a field mouse.[1]
Sometimes Christians start out with
high resolve, keeping Christ first in our lives. But soon our attention is diverted to things
of lesser importance. One pursuit leads
to another until we've strayed far from our original purpose.
At times it is a lack of faith in
God’s Word. In his book, Rebuilding
Your Broken World, Pastor Gordon MacDonald shared an event from his life:
A few years ago a friend asked a strange question. If Satan were to blow you out of the water, how do you think he would do it? I'm not sure I know, I answered, but I know there's one way he wouldn't get me – He'd never get me in the area of my personal relationships. That's one place where I have no doubt that I'm as strong as you can get. A few years after that conversation, a chain of seemingly innocent choices became destructive, and it was my fault. Choice by choice by choice, each easier to make, each becoming gradually darker. And then my world broke – in the very area I had predicted I was safe. Oswald Chambers comments on the tendency of men and women to lose major personal battles not at the points of their weaknesses but, strangely enough, at the points of their perceived strengths. He wrote, The Bible characters never fell on their weak points but on their strong ones; unguarded strength is double weakness. Funny! During my earlier years I'd thought we were most vulnerable at our weakest points – until I realized from personal experience that where we perceive ourselves to be the strongest is where we're least likely to be prepared for a battle that isn't psychological or emotional. It's spiritual![2]
For You Today
How do you appropriate the shield of
faith? Ask God, then function as if you
believe He is listening. When Alexander
the great sailed to conquer Persia, his ships landed at night. As the troops gathered on the cliffs
overlooking the harbor they were amazed to look back and see the torrid blaze
of the entire fleet. They learned that
Alexander himself had ordered the ships burned.
He wanted his men to know that the only direction was forward; retreat
was out of the question. Satan will tell
you there’s a way out, a more conservative approach. But not if you want a shield of faith that
works!
[1] Title and Other Images: Pixabay.com Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©
[1]The Bible Illustrator, (Hiawatha Ia, Parson’s Technology) Idx 3763-3765
[2]Rebuilding Your Broken World, by Gordon MacDonald
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