Eph 6:16    take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

     

Life is a battle. Things go wrong. Sometimes accidentally and sometimes purposefully. The one thing that the Bible tells us quite plainly, and which otherwise means we might only be left to suffer at the hands of superstition, is that there is a malevolent spirit called Satan who seeks to work against the people of God. It is a case of take it or leave it. The Bible says it so we'd do better to believe it. Yet this spirit is limited and is nothing like the might and power of God Himself. In fact the Bible teaches us that God makes use of this entity called Satan or the devil. (see the section on Spiritual Warfare on our sister site by CLICKING HERE).   

 

Now what the Bible also shows us is that this being attacks by using doubt, lies, temptation etc. In other words he tries to get at our minds and throw us off course. These ‘arrows' come in the following forms: “You're no use; you're a failure!” or “You've totally blown it. God won't love you!” The way to combat this, says Paul, is to raise up faith like a shield. Faith is responding to what God has said. Faith says, I will believe God rather than the lies of Satan, so when he says the above things, we respond, “Well, yes, on my own I can do nothing, but with Jesus I can do whatever he wants!” and “Yes, but I've said sorry and He's forgiven me because He loves me regardless of what I do.” That's faith, speaking out the truth of God's word. Do it today!