Well Armored

Ephesians
{6:10} Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
{6:11} Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
{6:12} For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places. ]
{6:13} Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
{6:14} Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
{6:15} And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace
{6:16} Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
{6:17} And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:
{6:18} Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints
{6:19} And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel
{6:20} For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

*******

Be strong in the Lord.

Not be strong of yourself.

Be strong in the power of *HIS* might.

Not be strong of your own might, your own accord.

Thank God that we don't have to be strong in and of ourselves, that we don't have to rely on our own might as we are trying to be strong *for* the Lord. We have to be strong *in* the Lord. We can't take any glory to ourselves. We can't save ourselves, we can't be strong in our own might or we'll fail miserably.

God has armor and it's available to us all. The armor isn't made of leather, or even chain mail, it's not made of a super fine mesh, it's not Kevlar, this armor of God's is made of all that any Christian will ever need to combat the invisible forces of evil that can attack and steal us from our salvation. These dark forces want our eternal life. God's armor will protect our eternal life.

The biggest threat to our eternal life is invisible- principalities, power, rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness.

Sounds so horror movie of the week, doesn't it?

I love that we can take the imagery of real armor and use that to realize what sort of armor we need for our very real, spiritual battle.

Loins girt in truth.
Breastplate of righteousness.
Boots of the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Shield of faith.
Helmet of salvation.
Sword of Spirit- word of God.
Praying always.

Truth, righteousness, gospel of peace, faith, salvation, Spirit-word of God, prayer.

We're not left defenseless.

We're not left on our own without armor, without protection.

Unfortunately it's a lot simpler to grab a pair of boots and shove them on our feet and to cover ourselves with Kevlar clothing, pick up a metal shield, put on a protective helmet and yes, heft up that metal sword and wave it about, than it is to put on the Spiritual armor available to us. Seriously. You'd think, hey, invisible armor, weightless, available all day everyday what is better than that? Nothing! Right? Nothing. And yet the Spiritual armor is something so many choose not to use. Can't see it, it's not there. Can't see it, why use it. Can't see it, hey it takes work to *think* about the spiritual, so much easy to just put on a metal jacket.

Truth. Righteousness. Gospel of peace. Faith. Salvation. Spirit-word of God. Praying.

That wickedness we fight would have us to believe we can't have any of those things- that we can't have the truth, we can't be righteous, that the gospel of peace belongs to the disciples, that faith is something elusive, salvation well, salvation is just a myth and who can ever really have the Spirit of God in them? Prayer, now here is something a lot of people are familiar with. Prayer. Yet those wicked spirits, the evil principalities would have us believe that even our prayers go unheard.

This armor is heart armor, spiritual armor that protects our eternal life not our physical life. We have to realize that we live in a spiritual world. If we can't admit that we live in a spiritual world then we really do have no hope. People often say there has to be more to life than this, meaning the existence they currently have, and they're right. The spiritual world is huge, so much larger than the physical. There is so much more than this.

We can have eternal life it's ours for the asking by the Grace of Jesus Christ. We can live in the spiritual world. It's only if we do live in the spiritual world that we can live and have more to life than what we have now, than what this world offers.

Perhaps as one going to battle each and ever day we need to remember to put on our armor. We wouldn't go out into a physical battle without armor on, without protective gear. You see our soldiers all the time all decked out in their protective gear, a lot of times they even have to sleep in it I've read. They wouldn't dream of taking off the protective gear and going out into the battle field. Yet here we are in a spiritual warfare where the battle is for our eternal lives and we think nothing of living unprotected. We think nothing of getting up and going about our day to day business without once thinking about Jesus, without once thinking about the truth in Jesus, the gospel that brings us peace, the faith, salvation, the Spirit, or praying.

Make no mistake we are in a war, all of us and we so need to be well armored.

Each day, each time we think about it, we should make sure we're protected shouldn't we? How? Through prayer, through acknowledging the truth, the gospel, by claiming Jesus in our lives, His righteousness, His peace.

May God help us all.

Amen.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.”- 1 John 2:15-16