Shield of faith

I recently finished reading Beth Moore's book Believing God. Oh, it was good.

Ephesians 6 tells us to "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 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. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Did you see that part tucked in there about our "shield of faith"? Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Or, in the KJV: "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." What does that mean, exactly? What is our shield of faith?

Beth explained it so well:

Among the strategically prescribed pieces of the armor of God, why “above all” do we need to learn to use our shield of faith? Because the shield is the armor’s armor. If the ancient warrior received a direct hit on any of the other defensive covers it could still stun and bruise even if it didn’t wound. The warrior’s goal was to extinguish any oncoming dart with his shield in order to diffuse all potential damage. When the warrior’s shield was down, the other pieces of armor were vastly more vulnerable.

The same is true in our warfare. Our toughest battles will invariably concern matters of faith—times when we’re tempted to think God’s Word and His ways won’t work for us, that He has abandoned us, let us down, or failed to come through for us. If Satan can get us to drop our shield of faith, he knows we can’t remain standing for very long. Firsts have great importance in Scripture. Do you know the first recorded words that ever came from the serpent’s mouth? “Did God really say…?” (Gen. 3:1).

He used the spade of deceit to sow doubt. Satan, posing as the serpent, couldn’t keep Eve from believing in God, so he did the next best thing. He baited her, tempting Eve not to believe God or trust His motives. Her walk was crippled, her doubt was contagious, and the couple lost the land God had placed under their feet. You see, when Eve dropped her shield of faith, every other piece of spiritual armor became vulnerable. Satan knew she wouldn’t remain standing for long. When she fell, she fell hard. I know the feeling.

“Above all,” you and I need to learn to take up our shield of faith. We also desperately need to know the Word of God and wield the Sword of the Spirit so that when the enemy slyly suggests “Did God really say…?”, we can know the answer emphatically. When we respond to attacks of doubt, distortion, and deceit with the truth of God’s Word, the fiery dart is extinguished and the enemy takes another hit. I owe him a few. Do you?

I love that word picture. The shield is the armor's armor. It is there to protect us from the enemy's fiery darts.

What I appreciate so much about Beth Moore is that she doesn't just stop right there. She shares her own practice of taking up the "shield of faith". And that is where it gets good. I'll share more on that for my next post.