Becoming a Woman of Faith~chapter 6

Before I start, I remembered I promised to reveal the mystery from my last post, as I was having a "vintage moment"; my friend Holly had to refresh my memory. Usually I am a note taker, but Lysa must have captivated me so that I never took out my notebook...

• First thing: Go to God daily...He is our portion, like manna, we need everyday~our daily bread.
• Next thing: Do the logical thing...read His word (Ps 119) Like pulling up a chair to the table.
• The most important thing: acknowledge Him in all your ways...(see previous post)
• Last thing: Every evening THANK GOD for all His wonderful blessings of the day.

A sweet reminder...keep the Main Thing the main thing :) And now onto the study...

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This week's chapter was entitled, "The Shield of Faith". It became very apparent that the shield of faith is essential in protecting every area, even the other armor. If you think of the armor listed in Ephesians 6, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the boots of the gospel of peace. All of those cover, but the shield covers them. We also notice there is no armor for the back, so we need to have other believers around us to guard our backs so-to-speak, to be victorious. We need their shield of faith along with our own.

As long as a Christian has faith, he is secure.

The soldier's shield that Paul had in mind when he wrote this verse was aprox. 2.5'x4', made of leather, and often wet down to quench the fiery arrows. We decided it was a quarter of a piece of plywood, and would be really heavy and cumbersome (for us girlfriends). But what effort it would take to keep holding this shield as well as keeping watch for the enemy.

Walking by faith is no "walk in the park"!

Walking by faith is essential to standing against our enemy who continually seeks to defeat us, and includes:

• Standing in the armor.
• Taking up the shield, helmet and sword.(Eph 6)
• Being self-controlled and alert
• Resisting the devil.(1 Pet 5:8,9)
• The victory that overcomes the world is our faith. (1 Jn 5:4,5)

Taking a look at the story of David and Goliath in 1 Sam 17:45-51, we see small, young David conquering the giant with confident faith. He never wavered in his confidence that God would defeat the one who was defying Him. He PROCLAIMED the truth with his mouth.

We draw a parallel to the story of David and Goliath. We believers are David, the world is Goliath. Don't you feel like that sometimes? You hear about the darkness that is enticing our kids, our teens, and feel like "WHEN IS IT GOING TO STOP?" or our own battles with temptations...

This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith... Let's have confident expectation that God is Almighty and can conquer every enemy!

In looking at a few passages from Psalms, we discover that many of the Psalmists expressed their faith by crying out loud, proclaiming or declaring, and recalling God's promises and past works. A stake was placed in the ground with the declarations of what they believed. We need to do this too! We need to boldly proclaim the TRUTH over our circumstances, and stand there!!

The voice of Truth tells me a different story...we will not be defeated by our testings and trials when we focus on that voice~the very real promises of God.

In 2 Chr 16:1-10 we read of Asa in fear of Israel calling on the King of Aram and making a treaty with him, rather than trusting in God for his help as he had done before. As a result he was defeated. If we turn to other-than-God methods of handling battles, we will grovel and grope for hope and victory until we once again call out to Him.

So what type of fiery darts do you deal with and how do you quench them? Do you struggle with fear of rejection? God is your refuge and strength (Ps 46). Do you struggle with controlling your tongue? Eph 4:29...How about discouragement? Josh 1:6,7.

Paul , in talking about the shield of faith, is speaking of a protection which will defend the innermost life from foul and destructive invasion...He did not seek a shield to ward off ill circumstances, but he sought a shield to keep ill circumstances from doing him harm. His shield was a vital faith in Jesus.

Let's rest completely in God and His commitment to protect us...

You who sit down in the High God's presence, spend the night in Shaddai's shadow,Say this: "God, you're my refuge. I trust in you and I'm safe!" That's right—he rescues you from hidden traps, shields you from deadly hazards. His huge outstretched arms protect you— under them you're perfectly safe; his arms fend off all harm. Fear nothing~ Psalm 91:1-3 Message