Ephesians 6:11-20

 Hello My Friends!  Today we are in Ephesians Chapter 6.  There is so much to unpack here, but today I will just skim the top.  

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.  For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.  Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.  In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit--which is the word of God.  Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.  Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.  For this I am an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.

We've all heard this and read this a million times...Put on the whole armor of God.  I use the Christian Standard Version for this blog, and I have to say it makes things a lot clearer when it comes to the armor and it's purpose.  

For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.   The NIV tells us this way:  Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.  But I like "having prepared everything, to take your stand." This tells us to prepare everything.  We cannot just go up against our enemy, who Paul tells us is "not flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens."  Each and everyday we must prepare for battle, if we don't prepare, we will lose and lose big.  

How do we prepare?  With truth like a belt around our waists, with righteousness like armor on our chests, sandaled with the readiness for the gospel of peace.  In EVERY SITUATION take up the shield of faith so that we can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  We can do nothing at all in this battle if we do not have a shield of faith over our hearts that will stop "the loser's" flaming arrows.  

Then the helmet of salvation and the SWORD OF THE SPIRIT...the Word of God.  Without knowing God's Word, we are left to flounder around from idea to idea, not knowing anything that is good.  There will come a time, dear friends, when we may not be able to open our Bibles and read the Word like we do now.  It is our job to "write these words on our hearts".  It is this truth that will get us through.  Why?  Because Jesus is in those Words...Jesus IS the WORD.  Every time we open the Word, we draw near to Him, sitting in His lap like a child waiting for a story.  We are His children and He longs for those times.  May each of us long to open His Word, sit in His lap, and listen to the stories of His love and kindness, fierceness and strength.  He is all we will ever need.  He longs to be with us.  Longs to be your last thought at night and your first thought in the morning.

We are also told by Paul to pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.  Paul wants us to be aware of all around us and continually pray for them.  That is my goal for this week.  Move away from ME and toward THEM.  Pray constantly for all around me.  

May each of you have an incredible week.  I pray that you find Jesus in all you do!

Until next time,

Terrie