Armor of God

(1st in series)

My son has a black belt in a form of martial arts known as Tae-kwon-do. He  recently remarked how useless his self-defense training would be if he were actually attacked by someone with a gun.

“You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued...” (Ephesians 6:13-18 MSG)

Most of the opposition we face in this world has a dark, spiritual element behind it. The real enemy is behind the scenes--subversive, unseen, evil, powerful--beyond our capacity to fight on our own. Yet, we attempt to fight this evil with human forms of self-defense--logic, compromise, willpower, discipline, force, and exertion.  We fail to recognize the uselessness of our weapons against the forces of darkness.

God has provided us with spiritual weapons and training to fight evil. We have the armor of God’s influence, His instructions, truth, goodness, peace, and trust.  Yet, it is up to us whether we use these spiritual weapons or continue to use human techniques to fight spiritual battles.