31 March 2007 - Armor of God
On a recent Sunday as I was watching one of our teachers teach our second hour fifth grade girls, he pulled out the toybox of the Armor of God. As he began putting the little pieces on himself, I got a sort of epiphany about it, something I'm sure I've never heard anyone speak on before. I think and understand things visually, so analogies like this make good sense to me.
The pieces are: Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness, Belt of Truth, Shoes of Peace, Shield of Faith, Sword of the Spirit.
Everything listed is for the defence of your most vulnerable places, except for the Sword of the Spirit. The exception to that is the Shield of Faith. If you've ever seen an epic war movie of ancient times, you'll know that the shield is used to deflect arrows and sword strikes, but also to push, shove, and throw like a deadly frisbee. So, your faith is both defence and offence. That's why if you have faith as a mustardseed you can move mountains, and why faith is so important, it is extremely powerful.
If your shield is broken right now, take it to the "armorer" and get it fixed. Maybe God gave me that realization that day because mine needs to be fixed, so here I am sitting in the Armorer's workshop.
Another thing I saw is that 5 out of 6 pieces of spiritual armor are used for defence, and the verse above the list of armor pieces says - in that evil day when you've done all else, just stand. His armor will protect us. And when the enemy has come to us, it's time to attack, and we have the Sword and the Shield.
Now that I'm tired just thinking about hand-to-hand combat .... Something I saw on the History Channel that very week was talking about that hand-to-hand combat and the chariots ... When a soldier in the thick of battle was getting tired, a chariot would bring a replacement soldier, so the weary soldier could escape in the chariot to rest before rejoining the battle.
I know I needed this, and I know God gave it to me because I needed it, but I thought someone here might need a little war-story devotion today too.
