"The Provision: The Armor of God (Eph. 6:11a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/30/2019 9:00 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  “The Provision: The Armor of God”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 6:11

 

            Message of the verses:  “11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.”

 

            We have been talking about “the strength of God’s might” in the past couple of SD’s and for us to take advantage of that believers must also “put on the full” spiritual “armor that the Lord supplies for each believers.  “3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:3-5).  John MacArthur writes Enduo (“put on”) carries the idea of once and for all, of permanence.  ‘The full armor of God’ is not something to be put on and taken off occasionally but is something to be ‘put on’ permanently.  It is not a uniform to wear only while playing a game and then to remove when the game is over.  ‘The armor of God’ is to be the Christian’s lifelong companion.  It provides believers with divine power from ‘Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy’ (Jude 24).”

 

            I have learned in the past that once the spiritual armor is put on that it is permanent, however I think that it is a good practice to put it on each day in order to be reminded that you need it and that you can use it through the strength of the Lord to help you in the battles that go on in the lives of believers.  In my prayer list that I try to use four days a week I have a place where I put on the Spiritual Armor.  By the way I set aside a time to pray for our Pastors on Saturday and  then on Thursday I pray for the things that are on our Wednesday prayer meeting’s prayer list, and then on Sunday morning on my way to church I once again pray for our Pastors and also our Sunday school teachers along with the Lord using our church service to bring glory to our Lord.

 

            We have learned in our study of Ephesians that Paul wrote this letter while in prison, and he was probably chained to a Roman soldier when he penned the words of the letter to the Ephesians.  While chained to the Roman Soldier he was looking at the armor that the soldier had on and was inspired by the Holy Spirit to see in it the analogy of God’s spiritual provision four our battle with Satan and his angels “14 Stand firm therefore, HAVING GIRDED YOUR LOINS WITH TRUTH, and HAVING PUT ON THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, 15  and having shod YOUR FEET WITH THE PREPARATION OF THE GOSPEL OF PEACE; 16  in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. 17 And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:14-17).  “The apostle explains in these verses, the believer’s armor equips the believer beyond the initial facts of the gospel.  It is living the obedient, Scripture-dominated, Spirit-empowered life that enables us to ‘Stand Firm’” (MacArthur).

            We need to understand the words “To stand firm” and MacArthur writes “(from histemi), when used in a military sense, had the idea of holding a critical position while under attack.  The intent of the exhortation here is not unlike that of our Lord to the embattled church at Thyatira, whom He commanded, ‘hold fast until I come’ (Rev. 2:25).  Now as mentioned we know the victory has been won at the cross and the fate of all believers is that we will be in heaven with the Lord either at the Rapture or our physical death, and so we are to stand firm while living on the earth going through these battles knowing our victory is at hand.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am reminded of the church at Philadelphia who we have learned had little strength, but were living in a way that pleased the Lord.  Our Lord gave them enough strength to accomplish their wonderful walk with the Lord. I must remember to ask the Lord to give me enough of His strength to walk with Him in a way that is pleasing to Him. 

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  By receiving strength from the Lord helps to make me humble as it is His strength that I use to walk with Him.

 

Today’s quotation from “Love in Action” comes from some various verses from the New Testament.

 

So comfort and encourage each other

with the news (1 Thessalonians 4:18 TLB).

So encourage each other to build each other up, just

as you are already doing (1 Thessalonians 5:11 TLB).  Now

we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort

[encourage] the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all

(1 Thessalonians 5:14).  But exhort [encourage] one another daily,

while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through

the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:13).  Not forsaking the

assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of

some, but exhorting [encouraging] one another,

and so much the more as you see the Day

approaching (Hebrews 1:25).

 

9/30/2019 9:42 AM