Pointing to Jesus

Ephesians 6:16- In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;

The fourth piece of armor in the armor of God is the Shield of Faith. Faith is a firm persuasion or a conviction that produces an acknowledgment of God’s revelation or truth. This firm conviction causes us to surrender to God, and then it produces actions that are inspired by that surrender. It’s a strong belief and trust in God.

Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It takes faith to believe in God because we cannot see Him. It’s a choice that we have to make everyday.

When we do make the choice to trust and believe God, our faith acts as a shield against the enemy’s fiery darts. Some of the  enemy’s darts are doubt, discouragement, deceit, disbelief, disobedience, distraction, fear, etc. Faith protects us from these things because it is a shield to keep the enemy’s darts from getting to our heart and other vital organs and parts of our bodies.

Even just a little faith can do great things. Matthew 17:20b- “For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

God will allow our faith to be tested sometimes, but only to make us stronger. I Peter 1:7- so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. James1:3- for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. We need to stay strong when our faith is tested because it results in great things.

Hearing the Word of God (the Bible) helps keep our faith strong. Romans 10:17- So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ.

Reading the Bible also helps keep our faith strong. We can read Hebrews chapter 11, which is the Faith chapter. This chapter tells of many of the people from the Old Testament who had great faith. We can read Matthew 8:5-13, which tells the story of the centurion who Jesus said had great faith. We can read Matthew 9:20–22 about the woman with the issue of blood who Jesus said her faith had made her well.  We can read Matthew 9:27–31 which tells of 2 blind men who Jesus healed according to their faith.

In my last blog post, I wrote about righteousness and peace being connected in the Bible. Righteousness and faith are also connected in the Bible. Romans 1:17-For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” In Ephesians 6:14b, the piece of armor is called the breastplate of righteousness. In I Thessalonians 5:8, it is called the breastplate of faith and love when talking about putting on armor.

As always, we need to continue to look to Jesus because He is the founder and perfecter of our faith. Hebrews 12:2–
Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Put up the Shield of Faith and stand strong.

Many blessings,

Desiree