“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Ephesians 6:10-11 NIV
In this chapter of Ephesians, Paul was giving instructions to the people of Ephesus about how to behave but also about how to fight when it comes to the devil and the fight for our souls. He begins in verse 10 to encourage them to be strong, to rely on God and His power because God is all powerful and can do anything. As a child of God, we each are able to ask God for help knowing He is there for us. Paul also warns the Ephesians about being aware of the devil and his schemes. The devil was just as active in Paul’s time as he is in our time, and we have a God who is just as strong today as He was in Paul’s time.
God knows the devil and what the devil wants, which is to take everyone away from God. So in addition to the Holy Spirit, God gave us tools or weapons that we can use to defend ourselves against the devil. In the following verses, Paul explains the tools/weapons that God gave us and he does it by pulling them all together and calling them the armor of God. The armor that Paul is describing is spiritual in nature, which is what we need when we are going up against the devil, a spiritual being. Sometimes spiritual concepts can be too abstract for us to truly grasp so God has Paul use an analogy to help clarify all of the spiritual ways we can defeat the devil’s plans to lure us away from God.
Paul uses something the people of Ephesus would have understood all too well, the armor of a Roman solider. This analogy is still useful today because although we do not have Roman soldiers walking around us all day long, we do know what the armor looked like. Also, we know that our soldiers today wear armor or pieces of gear which protect them in much the same way as the pieces of armor that a Roman soldier wore, protected him. In the verses that follow verses 10 and 11, Paul then links each weapon to a piece of the armor in a way of taking the spiritual tool/weapon and making it tangible so that everyone could visualize how to use that spiritual tool.
How blessed are we that our God is willing to give us the tools we need to fight against our enemy after all the times that we have let Him down. I am amazed at how God keeps forgiving me, a sinner, each time I ask for forgiveness and He hasn’t walked away from me saying He has had enough. We are all imperfect but we are not too much for God to deal with. He created us, loves us and is willing to support us, as a loving parent does, each step of the way. He will walk beside us and guide us, if we let Him, which is the key to all of it. We have to let Him, because God did not create robots, He gave us free will. Free Will enables us to be able to choose to have a relationship with God or not, to choose to want Him in our lives or not and choose to love Him or not.
So, which choice have you made? I have made mine and I have chosen God! You still have time to make a choice, which one will it be? Have a wonderful day.