My Shield of Faith

I came across this verse the other day and it spoke right to my heart:

Hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

Ephesians 6:16

I love that imagery.

I like to picture the devil flinging his arrows wildly at my heart.

And I hold up my shield and 'ping, ping, ping' ... those arrows bounce right off.

Faith is so powerful.

But its not easy.

I let my shield start to droop quite easily. Or I push it to the side a bit and the devil gets even one arrow to hit its target and suddenly I throw my shield of faith to the side and I'm left with the devils lies.

That has been on my heart a lot.

How easily I can lose heart...let my faith be silenced.

I'm so fickle.

Then I found a great message in my in box this morning from

Purpose Driven Life Devotions.

And it contained that same verse from Ephesians.

I decided that I needed to listen to what God was trying to tell me.

I'll paraphrase some of what the devotion said.

The writer talks of days when we feel that 'life' and the devil are coming at us from every direction...thousands of arrows are aimed directly for us.

What are some of those arrows?

The writer describes them as: doubt, depression, discouragement, delay, dead ends & despair.

ah, yep, Satan uses those against me...daily.

The author goes on to say that Satan has been casting doubt on us since the Garden of Eden when he asked Eve, 'Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? (Genesis 3:1) It worked on Eve...and he's been using that tactic ever since.

And the moment we open the door to doubt - even just a bit - the moment we move that shield aside - Satan will CHARGE IN.

And this is why we need faith.

Relying on and trusting all the promises of God even when everything is going wrong in our lives.

The bible says in Matt 9:29 that 'Because of your faith, it will happen'

So believe in God's promises even when they dont appear to be true in that moment of despair, doubt, depression...

And really that promise alone...'it WILL happen' ...is simply amazing and such a testament to God's love for His children.

So take that Satan!