Ephesians 6:10-20

Spiritual Battle: Standing Firm – The Shield of faith

This shield was huge – 4 and a half feet tall and 2 and a half feet wide.

The faith that Paul is talking about is the basic trust that accepts God’s gift of salvation and the daily trust in God for each day.

Sometimes people will say- “if only I had more faith”.  Your faith is only as strong as the thing that you have faith in. I could invest all my life savings “in good faith” but if the bank goes bust, I could lose all my money.  If our faith is in God he is completely unshakeable and dependent and we will never lose!

When Roman soldiers were in battle they would soak their leather shields in water and then crouch behind them, so that flaming arrows of the enemy archers would be extinguished. We are subjected to a barrage of temptation, hatred, immorality, pride, fear etc etc from Satan.

The only way to withstand this onslaught is to fully TRUST God and take cover behind our faith in an immovable and all powerful being. We need to be saturated in faith – just like the shield saturated in water – so that we can extinguish the attacks on our spiritual lives.

ILLUSTRATION:

I have never had the misfortune to be shot at on duty, but my training tells me to take cover behind something very large and very solid if I encounter someone with a gun.

We also need to remember that we are not fighting this battle in isolation. We are a church and a body of believers and we stand together to support each other. An army standing side by side with their shields linked together is much more effective than a lone warrior.