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Armor of
God Reflections
By Nancy L. Kenaston
June 21, 2022
For years now, the subject of the armor of God has kept coming up in my life.
The Armor of God study by Pricilla Shirer, was really good at embedding this section of scripture into my mind and heart. Now I’m reading her book Fervent and ran across it again, and this time something new surfaced. Pages 46 and 47 bring up this “battleground equipment” list again and just give a short description of each piece. The 6th chapter of book of Ephesians goes into detail about this armor.
Here’s what she wrote:
“Truth is God’s standard—the unchanging, objective benchmark of the Bible by which we govern and align our lives.
Righteousness means right living—the process by which we apply this truth to our lives and, by His Spirit, produce conduct honoring and pleasing to God.
Peace is the deep, inner, eternal stability the believer posseses by virtue of relationship with Jesus, a ssense of balance that’s not subject to external circumstance. It’s also the quality that enables us to live harmoniously with others.
Faith is the application of what one believes—the process of putting feet to our beliefs and living in lights of it…in practical terms.
Salvation is both our eternal security in Christ, as well as the full inheritance we’ve been given because of our relationship with Him. It includes our blessings, status, and identity—everything we’ve received that enables us to live victoriously for Him.
The Word of God is His present, relevant, personal Word to us today. The Bible may be an old Book, but God’s Spirit makes it fresh, new and alive for us.”
It dawned on me, these 6 gifts, the armor, are EXACTLY what the enemy of God is trying to steal from us in this life! He knows how VITAL of a weapon each of them are! Truth! Living right! Peace! Faith! Salvation! The very Word of God! Little alone prayer!
So he starts with TRUTH. If he can erode or steal that…he’s got us completely undone. A soldier NEVER went into battle without his belt. It was the foundational piece of all his battle equipment, holding everything together. If we don’t have truth…what else matters?
Today’s culture is trying to dissolve truth. Our kids, and many adults, use the term “my truth”. I was thinking, "My. Truth. Seems like putting those together is...sort of an oxymoron." Ron Brackin said, “Subjective truth is an oxymoron; objective truth is redundant. Subjective truth is feathers in a wind tunnel, blowing anywhere and everywhere. Objective truth is an anvil, bolted to the floor of the wind tunnel. “
Once truth is taken, all the rest is easy to take. Without truth, how do you know how to live right? Without truth, peace evaporates. Without truth, how can you believe or trust anything? Without truth, how can you be protected from harm? Without truth, what is the point of God’s Word? Or prayer? See what a slippery slope that was? Turned into a cliff quickly, didn’t it? Again, if we don’t have truth, what else matters?
So, the enemy steals truth, and then the game is fixed.
By Nancy L. Kenaston
June 21, 2022
For years now, the subject of the armor of God has kept coming up in my life.
The Armor of God study by Pricilla Shirer, was really good at embedding this section of scripture into my mind and heart. Now I’m reading her book Fervent and ran across it again, and this time something new surfaced. Pages 46 and 47 bring up this “battleground equipment” list again and just give a short description of each piece. The 6th chapter of book of Ephesians goes into detail about this armor.
Here’s what she wrote:
“Truth is God’s standard—the unchanging, objective benchmark of the Bible by which we govern and align our lives.
Righteousness means right living—the process by which we apply this truth to our lives and, by His Spirit, produce conduct honoring and pleasing to God.
Peace is the deep, inner, eternal stability the believer posseses by virtue of relationship with Jesus, a ssense of balance that’s not subject to external circumstance. It’s also the quality that enables us to live harmoniously with others.
Faith is the application of what one believes—the process of putting feet to our beliefs and living in lights of it…in practical terms.
Salvation is both our eternal security in Christ, as well as the full inheritance we’ve been given because of our relationship with Him. It includes our blessings, status, and identity—everything we’ve received that enables us to live victoriously for Him.
The Word of God is His present, relevant, personal Word to us today. The Bible may be an old Book, but God’s Spirit makes it fresh, new and alive for us.”
It dawned on me, these 6 gifts, the armor, are EXACTLY what the enemy of God is trying to steal from us in this life! He knows how VITAL of a weapon each of them are! Truth! Living right! Peace! Faith! Salvation! The very Word of God! Little alone prayer!
So he starts with TRUTH. If he can erode or steal that…he’s got us completely undone. A soldier NEVER went into battle without his belt. It was the foundational piece of all his battle equipment, holding everything together. If we don’t have truth…what else matters?
Today’s culture is trying to dissolve truth. Our kids, and many adults, use the term “my truth”. I was thinking, "My. Truth. Seems like putting those together is...sort of an oxymoron." Ron Brackin said, “Subjective truth is an oxymoron; objective truth is redundant. Subjective truth is feathers in a wind tunnel, blowing anywhere and everywhere. Objective truth is an anvil, bolted to the floor of the wind tunnel. “
Once truth is taken, all the rest is easy to take. Without truth, how do you know how to live right? Without truth, peace evaporates. Without truth, how can you believe or trust anything? Without truth, how can you be protected from harm? Without truth, what is the point of God’s Word? Or prayer? See what a slippery slope that was? Turned into a cliff quickly, didn’t it? Again, if we don’t have truth, what else matters?
So, the enemy steals truth, and then the game is fixed.
No wonder there are skyrocketing
rates of anxiety and depression! Without truth, suicide seems a viable option
to end our suffering and pain.
But WITH truth? Everything changes! Suddenly you
can feel the ground under your feet again, you can get your balance, you can
look around you and figure out where you are, and where you want to be. Like
coming up out of the frothy water, after getting knocked down by a surprise
wave, you get your feet on the ground, and you can look up and find the beach,
and head that direction, to solid ground.
No wonder the enemy wants to
steal truth. He knows without it, we will continually suffer and never thrive.
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