Put on the full armor of God

On a daily basis it seems I find undeniable wisdom in my Bible. Today, I asked myself, “Why should that surprise me?”

I recently signed up for one such daily dose of wisdom from BibleStudyTools.com. Their staff chooses a Proverb-of-the-day, and emails it each morning. In fact, I blogged today’s Proverb earlier. It’s not that I can’t just read the book of Proverbs myself, but this daily reminder gets me immersed in his Word first thing every morning.

In addition to the Proverbs email, I also get a story and scripture passage from Our Daily Bread Ministries’ Our Daily Journey series. As with other ODB titles, this is truly one of my favorites of all time. Perhaps I have mentioned this before, but I have been an Our Daily Bread devotional reader since before my daughter was born, and she’ll turn 34 in March. That’s a long time to never miss a day of a single publication. It never fails to amaze me how many time the devotion for a particular day is just what I needed. Seems God’s hand is everywhere in my life, and I humbly thank him for his guidance, and, at times, intervention.

Then, there’s the reason I started today’s journal entry, BibleGateway.com’s verse-of-the-day, which, in light of the mess this country’s in, seemed more than appropriate for some deep thought on God’s take on the subject of the earthly rulers of man. The verses that got me blogging comes from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 12 and 13 (NIV), where the apostle writes, “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.”

As a Christian, I use the Bible as my armor/defense against the forces of evil, and you should too. When I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, he gave me protection against Satan’s attacks, and authorities who exude the devil’s ideals, through his Word.

Interestingly enough, my go-to study guide, the Quest Study Bible, nicely sums it up, explaining in its sidebar about Ephesians 6:12, “Spiritual warfare for believers, therefore, is fought in the mind, emotions and will…The more our minds are filled with the truth of God’s Word, the less susceptible we are to Satan’s deceptions and temptations.”

Makes sense to me. What about you? Do you pick up your cross (for me that’s my Bible) daily and, through the reading of his infallible Word, dedicate your day/life to Him?

Yes? Wonderful, keep up the good fight.

No? Isn’t it time to consider the peace and joy and defense against the evil in this world that you can get from accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Please think long and hard about it as none of us are guaranteed the next moment.

With that written, I end today’s post with this prayer:

May the Lord above guide us all and keep us safe from all kinds of evil. May those who believe on his Son, Jesus Christ continue to fight the good fight with the full armor his Son’s death on the cross provided us. May today be the day that those who do not believe in Jesus Christ make the decision to follow him.

Amen.

Luke 9:23-26 (NIV) ²³ Then [Jesus] said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. ²⁴ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. ²⁵ What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? ²⁶ Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.