What does it mean to put on the armour of God? I failed to understand what my squad meant by this when we talked about the armour of God. My team “physically” did this by acting out the placing of this armour on their bodies. However, I still didn’t understand it because it’s not a physical armour we are putting on so what does it mean then and how do I “put on the armour of God?” Through reading Ephesians 6:14-17, God revealed what He meant.
To start us off Colossians 1:23 “If indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven.”
Putting on the armour of God is being confident, and to be steadfast in what God has told us. What is first mentioned is the belt of truth. We first need to know who we are fighting. We cannot be steadfast or on the side of God if we go through this life believing the lies of the devil. Are you really on God’s side if we are living by the ruler over the earthy world? Our fight is not with flesh and blood but with the spiritual realm.
Notice that the truth isn’t what we fight with because the sword is the Spirit. God does the fighting, not us, and that comes by knowing His Word, the Bible. We can sharpen our sword with Bible memorization.
The breastplate is knowing who you are in Christ, and how you’ve been made clean, purified, and righteous in His sight. The devil tries to confuse us with who we are in Christ, telling us we aren’t His children because we are dirty. However, that is not true at all, because of what Christ has done, we have been set free of the bondage of sin that has had ahold of us. I am righteous in the sight of God!
The helmet of salvation is being confident in the place God has and is holding for us in His kingdom. “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also” (John 14:2-6). I have a place in God’s kingdom. This place has been given to us and not earned by anything we have done.
The shoes of the gospel of peace. This is the foundation (what we stand on a.k.a our feet) which we place all this truth upon. Notice that our peace is not placed on our head but on our feet as it is to be left wherever we go. We can have peace in what God has done for us and share that wherever God has us go.
The shield of faith is the one I had the most trouble with. Faith is the action in which we trust our belief. The thing that separates us from the demons, who believe, is our faith. When the devil (not if, but when) throws those flaming arrows we can extinguish them through this action of belief. We trust in what God says to be true. We trust in the armour we have put on having confidence in the power our Lord holds. Knowing the fight has already been won! 🏆
I haven’t been putting on the armour of God. In Romania, I was attacked and without knowing the confidence I have in God, I was hit! Be steadfast in the Lord and in His truths He has told you (the belt). Hold firm to who He says you are (breastplate) and what he has for you (helmet)! And this was all done from what He did for you not what you have done, rest in Him (shoes).
“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.” 1 Cor. 15:58
The armour of God covers us from being hit. It protects our body from being hurt. It seems the devil has been targeting my head, my abdomen, my faith and my foundation at my time in Romania. The very specific one I was surprised to discover was my head, my helmet of salvation. In Alba Lulia, I questioned my salvation, spiralling on the thought if I left Romania and the Race I would lose my salvation because I was being disobedient to the Lord.
I realized I didn’t want to do hard things. My theology has been challenged as I know that if I do good things my life doesn’t become easier. It is going to be hard whether or not I choose to follow God. Except choosing to live for the world vs Christ, I can enjoy the fading pleasures of the world. I know that doesn’t seem like much (because it is not), however, when everything else looks bleak it seems appealing. If I chose to believe the world had more to offer me than God, was He going to take away His eternal promise to me?
I also had a dream about a train. (I’ve had this thought before and it was inspired by an animation movie.) If the train is moving towards eternal life to enter that train I have to have a ticket. The ticket is salvation, however, if I never enter the train I will never make it to that destination. We don’t have to do anything with/to the train expect get on it. However, I felt like if I chose to leave the race I was getting off the train. Nevertheless, I don’t believe this anymore because it is flimsy. I am still choosing God even if I don’t choose to do this one hard thing he has asked me to do.
If you don’t have a good support system reminding you of the truths of God the devil feeds you his lies. My belt was targeted and lies were …
“You will never get out of this”
“Things won’t ever get better”
“It is your fault you’re like this”
“You placed yourself in this situation” or even worse “God wants you to suffer and that is why He put you here.”
There was a point when I was in Alba Lulia, that I thought the people around me were the enemy. At that time we were also rewatching the Hunger Games series and I remembered when Haymitch (the main character’s mentor) told Katniss (the main character) to remember who the real enemy is. “For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). At this point my truth was so twisted. I wasn’t seeing things clearly anymore and I knew it.
Where was my faith, my shield? Faith is our confidence in things hoped for. It is putting your trust in the impossible because of what God has told us. I’ve been told I will not have the desires of my heart fulfilled unless I am aligned with Christ. How was I to hope when my desires weren’t aligned with God’s? I don’t know how to place my faith in God if I am not already on the “right” path. Life goes through ups and downs. When things are up it’s really easy to continue to believe life will go in that direction. Nevertheless, when things are down, you don’t want them to continue down that path.
Faith is believing the good even when you can only see bad, that is the unseen. Therefore, I’m going to believe my kind of good even if I am not sure if it’s aligned with God’s because that is what faith is. It is hoping, so I started to hope again. I started to pray and believe these things would come true. “But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6).
Last of all peace. All my peace was taken away as I thought my salvation was being taken away. My faith didn’t feel strong enough to be a Christian anymore. I was experiencing hardship and I didn’t want to endure. I wanted to give up. However, even through all of that, I couldn’t book that flight home. I looked at it, searched train schedules and made a plan. But I couldn’t press that button, something was stopping me. God was calling me to hope.
There was also a process of pride of letting you all down in coming home but God brought me through that, through my friends at home. It was a choice I could make but it wasn’t the choice God wanted me to make. Now I might feel the same way again. I don’t think I have figured this all out yet. I don’t understand it all but for now, I am trying to rest in this; that this is the place God wants me to be. I need all your prayers as I’m not done with this journey yet.
