The Armor of God.

Hey Everyone!
Sorry its been a while since my last post on here. Hope everyone is doing well and are having a great summer so far.  Today, I want to talk about the armor of God and how we can use it to fight Satan when he is wanting to tempt us with the things of this world.  How many times have you struggled with giving into temptation?

One way or another, we strive to do what is right but the cares of this world and life get a hold of us and we tend to not always make the best decisions in our life. Even though there are wars going on here on earth, there's also another war going on. It's a spiritual warfare between God and Satan. 

Let's see what God says in His word on how we can use His armor to overcome temptation.

Our text comes from Ephesians 6:10-18.   Let's examine this together with one verse at a time.

1. "Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." -Ephesians 6:10. 

•    We have nothing to fear if we remain strong in our relationship with God and walk in His light.

2. "Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes."
-Ephesians 6:11

• So we must put on the full armor of  God when we are tempted, we can overcome temptation when Satan is always lurking around wanting us to give in. 

3. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."  -Ephesians 6:12

• Even when we are dealing with wars on earth, our main priority that we're faced with everyday is the battle for our souls. Who do you want to be in your heart?  God or Satan? 

 4. "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." -Ephesians 6:13

• When we are tempted, we need to be ready to say "no" even though it's hard.  In the long run, we will be glad that we were able to stand firm and not give into temptation.  

5."Stand firm 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." -Ephesians 6:14-15

• Here we see the first three pieces of armor that we need to have on everyday.  

1.Belt of Truth: We should always be truthful no matter what situation we are in. Sometimes we don't tell the truth.  When we don't tell the truth there are consequences we face. 


2. Breastplate of Righteousness-  We always should strive to live like Jesus lived.  If we remain in Christ, we need to have the mindset that HE  had.  

3. Feet fitted with readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace- We should always be ready to share the good news with others.  


6. "In addition to all of  this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."-Ephesians 6:16

• In order to remain strong in Christ, we need to always keep our faith in Him strong.  When we get caught up with the things of this world, we get distracted and don't grow in our faith. That's when Satan sees us as vulnerable and we tend to give in.

7. "Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of  the Spirit which is the Word of God." -Ephesians 6:17

• Helmet of Salvation- When we put Christ on in baptism, we became saved and we need to always keep our salvation in check. How do we do that?  We study God's word. We don't merely just look at a page of words. The way we should examine God's word is to intensely study it and put it into practice. 

• Sword of the Spirit- Our sword we fight against the devil is the Word of God.  When we use our sword, we are able to fight Satan.  We keep our sword sharp by continuing to intensely study God's word and put it into practice.  When we don't use our sword, it becomes "dull" over time. Do you use the Sword of the Spirit?  If you have let it become "dull" try sharpening it again by using it.  

8.  "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."  Ephesians 6:18.

• We need to constantly pray everyday without ceasing. When we communicate with our Heavenly Father we become stronger in our walk with Him. There are times when we get concerned with our physical needs here on earth. What about our Spiritual needs?  Let's not forget our spiritual needs which are much more important than our physical needs.  God wants to have an  intimate relationship with us. It's not a relationship where we just say "Ok, thanks for saving me. I think I can take things from here."   NO.  We are nothing without God.  Our minds cannot comprehend how much God can do in our lives.  It's a relationship where He wants to spend time with us and wants to be in every aspect of our lives. He knows what we need and when we need it.  We tend to forget that God does everything on HIS time and NOT ours.  If we stay patient and give our lives over to God regardless and let HIS WILL be done, we will see how much God works in our lives.  

I hope you have been encouraged and strengthened by reading this post.  Living the Christian life is NOT easy.  Please pray for me as we pray for each other to become more like Him everyday.

Take care and may God bless you all everyday.

Until I write again,
Lauren