Faith is a Shield
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one… Ephesians 6:16, ESV
As I read the verse above and was meditating on it, my thoughts went back to a vision I had seen some time ago. I was sitting in the dark and fiery darts were coming at me. Now at the time I did not realize they were darts because all I could see in the vision was little fiery lights. I would move myself close to them, but they seemed to move back. I could not understand why I could not embrace those fiery lights coming at me. I saw them consistently coming but they did not touch me. They were close, but I never felt them.
While meditating on that scripture, the word shield stood out and the Holy Spirit said, “Those darts could not hit you because your faith was a shield!” I was like, what!! And then the Holy Spirit showed me how in the times when I doubted God, I had lowered my shield, and the darts would hit. The first hit that would land on me would always be fear. It was such a revelation - fear got in because I had lowered my shield of faith!
How did I lower my shield? The Holy Spirit said I had stopped hearing and feeding myself the Word of God. Now as much as I did not want to believe that the scripture does not lie. “…faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). And it also says that there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love (1 John 4:18).
The more time we spend hearing and studying the Word of God, the more we are being perfected in love and our faith is strengthen. This happens because God is love, and as we study the Word, He reveals more of Himself to us. Listen, the more time I spent with my husband when we were dating, the more my faith was built up in our relationship. So when he told me he loved me and asked to marry me, I believed him based on the relationship we had developed. Now if he was sporadic in our relationship, I would have doubts about his love for me and less faith in our relationship moving forward.
How much more is God saying the same thing to us? Our faith shield is kept up by spending more time with Him and in His Word, which is Him speaking to us. And at the same time our love grows and is perfected in a way that we will never doubt that He loves us and will do exactly what He says. Amen.
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19, Isaiah 55:11
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