“In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
-Ephesians 6:16
The unknown is scary. It is intimidating. Fear of the unknown or the unseen will swallow your happiness whole if you let it overcome you. Faith is believing God is working even when you can not see it. Faith is walking out into the unknown even when all you can see is one step ahead of you. Fear and faith can not coexist. Faith is COMPLETELY believing, and fear is COMPLETELY doubting.
What are the flaming arrows that Ephesians 6:16 is talking about??? …….It is worry…… It’s the lie from the devil that you have to control and take care of everything yourself. It’s Satan telling you that the path of the world is much safer and fulfilling. Your worry about the past, present, or the future are all based off of Satan’s lies. He is the king of lies. It’s what he does best. He plants seeds of weeds in your mind that spread like wildfire if you don’t pluck them before they grow. Weeds are not good. They compete with the plants around them for their nutrients. Essentially, they leave the surrounding plants starving, taking the essentials for life. That plant in this case is your faith. When your lose your faith, you starve. Your emotions are drained. Your physical state stumbles. Your mind feels foggy. It is easy to fall into this trap. It is like quicksand. Whatever you do on your own just makes you sink deeper and deeper. The truth is we aren’t meant to have to do this on our own. God is the friend with the stick that is able to pull you out of the quicksand. When you worry, what you are doing is telling the Lord that you doubt His capability of accomplishing the task at hand. The Lord is capable of parting seas, resurrection, turning water into wine, healing the blind, the list goes on. He can do the impossible. He can move mountains for you.
“Shield of Faith”
The Roman shield at the time Paul wrote Ephesians is not the type of shield you see in the movies. It’s definitely nothing like Captain America’s shield. Imagine a door without a handle or a wreath and that is about what the shield back then looked like. It was used for defense, but it was also used to pushing opponents back. The thought of always defending Satan’s lies to the point where they never even enter your thought process is impossible. Satan is sneaky. Sometimes we will need to push back the lies that have slipped into our brain. We need to be on full alert, and ready to push back.
Fundraising is something that has taken a lot of faith. Satan is good at using finacle needs as a source of worry. $16,600 is a huge number. That is more than my car was worth. Starting out fundraising I was full of faith. I believed God would move mountains and it would all just come gushing in. Well a month in and no donations that faith dropped pretty quickly. Satan lied to me saying “You should have sent more letters.” “your not worth investing in.” “You are doing everything wrong.” “ You should probably start saving up.” Sadly for about a month that is what was going in and out of my brain. I let the weeds grow, and they grew fast. I was just not seeing it happen. Then I read a book called God is able (highly suggest it). It knocked my mindset back into place. It reminded me that God is able to do “exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think. “ (Ephesians 3:20-21) I realized I am not supposed to be seeing it happen. I am not suppose to know how it is all going to turn out, because there is no faith in that. God either says yes to our prayers, or he says I have something better. I knew if God did not want me to go on the race there is no way in my humanly power I would be able to raise the money. That gave me peace, to know it was in His hands and not mine. Little by little, penny by penny, the lord has provided. It did not all happen at once. It happened in small amounts here and there that added up to be a lot. I think sometimes we are looking for this grand miracle, and we miss the miracle in the small things.
A quote regarding faith by Beth Moore is “You’re where God wants you for now and your life is bearing fruit. Difficulties still abound, of course, but the spiritual ground God has given you is fertile. You sow the seeds of His Word– sometimes with joy. Sometimes with tears, but always with faith– and sooner or later tender green shoots sprout from the ground.” The only question that decides your attitude towards whatever it is you are facing is…. Do you have seeds of weeds infesting your thoughts, or a faith filled mustard seed?
“Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, 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. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
-Ephesians 6:10-18
