Shield Training

Ephesians 4:17-24

Verse 20  That, however, is not the way of life you learned

    As with any army, one of the first and more important things that happen is understanding your gear and knowing how to use it properly.  The same must happen in our spiritual life with our spiritual armor.  The shield in particular can be tricky to understand and use.  While the shield is primarily used as a defensive piece it has a role in offense as well.  To know how to use the shield properly we must learn both uses of it effectively.

    We have been learning things since before we knew what learning was, this can also be said for our spiritual life.  No matter the home you grew up in you were learning what it meant to have faith.  It may not have been about having faith in God but we were learning what faith meant.  We may have learned to trust certain adults in our life because they were always there for us or we may learn not to have faith in others because we haven’t felt we were able to trust those in our lives.  Each of those scenarios lead us to a perception of who God is and how He works.

    When we have learned a negative view of faith, we may struggle with being able to use the shield of faith.  We may become a bit overwhelmed and not think it is big enough to cover all the places we feel vulnerable.  But if we have been raised with a healthy understanding of faith, we should be able to see how reliable God is and we will feel safe because He is our protector.

    It is this knowing we can trust the Lord which should help us know we can trust Him and His ways to protect us.  It is our knowing He is always faithful which should inspire our unwavering faith in Him.  The enemy’s flaming arrows shouldn’t have any effect on us because we know he is lying about our Father.  When the arrow of doubt comes, we can deflect it with our shield of faith because we know God is who He says He is and always will be.  We can use our shields to push back against the enemy’s advances.

    One thing we can’t forget is, to be efficient with our shield, we need to know what we are looking for in the way of the attack.  If we are only looking for arrows which are flaming bright – the obvious attacks of the enemy – we may miss the smoldering darts – the less obvious tactics of the enemy – coming our way.  We need to train for all circumstances.

Making It Personal

    How do your childhood experiences affect the faith you have in God?  In what ways has your faith grown as an adult?  Where do you still need to work on exercising your faith?

Making It Personal Kids

    Who is someone you know you can always trust?  Why do you know you can always trust them?  How much can you trust Jesus?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for being patient with us as You teach us about true faith.  Help us as things come our way which are to grow us in our faith, give us the needed strength and courage.  In Jesus’ name, amen.