Knowing Our Shield

Ephesians 1:15-23

Verse 17  I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better.

    Faith is one of those things we as Christians often think we have a pretty good handle on and yet as we talked about the other day in regards to peace, worry is a big sin in the Church.  In today’s passage Paul is telling his friends how he is praying for them.  He tells them how he is encouraged by their faith but he doesn’t leave it there, he is praying for them to know Him better.

    Having faith in God is necessary to be in relationship with Him but for us to be able to weather the attacks of the enemy, we need to continue to grow our faith in God.  This comes as any faith in something would be built by continued interaction.  Generally speaking the more we get to know someone who we trust, the more we will come to trust them.

    Paul understood just how important it is that we are coming to know God more so our faith will grow allowing us to see more clearly the enemy’s tactics and schemes.  As we learn to know God in a deeper way we will find how faithful He is and the more faithful we see Him, the more our faith in Him will tend to grow.  But what do we need to be doing to get to know Him more?

    Paul is also praying their hearts will be enlightened so they can hold to the hope which is ours in Christ.  The teacher knew just how difficult it can be to hold onto our faith in the hard times.  As he sat as a prisoner, writing letters to friends, he knew they didn’t fully grasp how bad trials could become but he knew they needed to hold tight to faith in God and His abilities.

    While it is important to pray for each other’s faith, as individuals we have to be intentional about picking up our shield of faith so we are ready for battle because those battles will come more frequently than we often admit.  Whether it is a battle with worry, selfish anger, bitterness or various other sins, it is a battle and we need to be ready to fight it with our faith.  And we can’t fight if we aren’t focused on the strength of our Commander.  We need to be able to say with David, God is our strength and our shield (Psalm 28:7).

Making It Personal

    How often do you pray for other believer’s faith?  Do you ask them for prayer for your faith life?  What particular area of your life would you ask for pray for?

Making It Personal Kids

    Do you pray about your faith?  Have you ever asked someone else to pray for your faith life?  What would you ask them to pray for?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for being there to be our strength and our shield.  Help us desire an ever-growing faith in You and Your promises.  In Jesus’ name, amen.