Faith Is Rising

Ephesians 6:16 (NIV) —

‘In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.’

When you think of a shield what comes to mind? A tiny cardboard cut-out that you made for school? Or maybe Captain America and his famous disc-shaped shield? There are many possibilities, but when Paul talks about a shield in this verse, it would have been a shield about the size of a door. Imagine carrying around your kitchen door as your shield in battle! For most of us our shield would be bigger than ourselves - but this is just how God wants it.

God wants our faith in him to be so large that it would protect our whole body - mind, soul, and everything else. Think about it this way... our faith in Christ is a massive shield that will protect and guard us during every trial we face. And the beautiful thing is we are putting our faith in a God who will never fail, disappoint us, nor leave us.

Maybe you are thinking 'my faith is too weak at the minute - it doesn’t feel like a shield protecting me in battle.' I want to say to you that even when you feel weak, your brothers and sisters around you can protect you with their shields, with their faith. Even when you are personally short of faith, you can be strong in a faith-filled community. Through prayer and support from those around you, your faith too will rise!

Shields are defensive weapons that protect us from attacks of the enemy. Roman soldiers would have consistently dipped their shields in water to put out fiery arrows from their enemy. Let's encourage each other to constantly be refreshed by the Holy Spirit - that our faith may be refreshed by his living water stopping any fiery arrows that the enemy may try to attack us with.

Prayer - Lord, I ask today you would help our faith to rise in you. Thankyou that we have faith in a God who already has the victory!