For many of us when we read Eph 6:10-18, we sort of pass through the armor of God quickly and say to ourselves "I got that." The question is do we really understand the importance of each piece? Each piece of armor is vital to our success as a warrior for Christ. Let's look at them from the top down.
We start with the helmet. The basic thing is that a helmet protects our brain. Satan begins to attack us in this area almost immediately. He realizes that if he can start making us question our salvation then he can make us falter and eventually get us so confused that we will give up. That is why scripture tells us that God is not a God of confusion.
The next piece is the breastplate of righteousness. In our heart, we are supposed to be like Jesus always doing things that are right and directed by the spirit. We are supposed to have our hearts tuned into the lost. When we allow Satan to attack the heart, he tries to get us to stop acting upon the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our heart and act out of emotion. He also tries to dilute what actual love is and tries to make our hearts fickle and wavering. The neat thing here is that Breastplate really of no back on them. As Christians, we must realize the army that we fight in never retreats so a back is not needed.
Next we have the belt of truth. The belr of truth is what holds all the armor together. Without it, we can hear the word and even believe the word to some degree, but when we try to act on the prompting of our heart we trip and fall on our clothing. Many argue that truth is relative and it is exactly that thought process that allows Satan to obscure the truth and thry to blur the lines of truth. We many times can put our own thoughts in to what we believe is truth and that compromises the truth and makes it have an air of the truth but not truth at all.
The gospel of peace on our feet is the next piece. This armor piece is often attacked by Satan using fear and apathy. Satan knows that if we get motivated and actually start going and proclaiming the gospel of peace he is in deep trouble. So, he begins to attack the believer with fear. HE then tries to persuade us that it is someone else s problem or job to reach the lost.
The shield of faith is often attacked many times by Satan pointing out times when God supposedly did not answer our requests of Him. He points out sadness and hurt and pain and suffering with the hope of getting us to question our faith when we pray and stand on the front lines. We simply must not allow it.
So how do we keep our armor on? We pray and ask god to show us our weakness. Then, we pray for God's help to strengthen us in that area. Thirdly, we pick up our weapon and learn how to use it. God did not leave us with just armor so we could stand and be Satan's punching bag. He equipped us with a manual for the greatest weapon known to mankind. It is bigger than the biggest aircraft carrier, stronger than an atomic bomb, and more portable than an iPod. Simply put it is the Bible and we should read it to find out how to tie all our armor together and activate the best weapon ever. God's word is the sword of the Spirit. That means that when we use it the Holy Spirit is the one who is doing the fighting, we are just telling him that the battle is his.
God has equipped us for a battle that is far bigger than we could ever imagine. Are you ready for war? Ready or not it is raging in society to day and all around the world. Will you be ready to stand on the front lines and fight?
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