LEARNING DAILY

 

Ephesians 6:11, Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (NKJV)

 

The day after Veteran’s Day is a good time to examine this verse as it applies to Christians.  Christians, you and me, are engaged in a daily conflict with evil.  This is a spiritual conflict the Bible describes as a warfare of faith.  It is warfare that begins the moment Jesus Christ is accepted as one’s Savior and Lord and continues until the life to come is entered into.  Fundamentally this means Satan is trying to do everything he can to get you off the road to eternal life in the kingdom Jesus has gone to prepare for you.

 

Satan is a schemer, a strategist who uses a variety of “wiles” in planning the downfall of Christians.  Some of these schemes are to “create division in the church, unbelief in the promises of God, discouragement, temptation to sin, unwillingness to forgive, compromise in what we know to be true, getting our eyes off Jesus, fear, accusation, indulging our sinful nature, spiritual apathy, and so forth” (LSSB).  Does anyone else recognize how the devil comes against you in this list?  What do we do against these schemes?  Paul is clear.  “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  The armor of God is described in Ephesians 6:14-18.  I include verse 18 because of how powerful prayer is in our walk on the narrow way!  Then, we stand!  We stand against the schemes of Satan.

 

We stand on the fact that our victory has been secured by Christ Himself through His death on the cross where Jesus waged war against Satan.  The Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan, disarmed the evil powers and authorities, and redeemed you and me and all who would believe!  Now we are involved in spiritual warfare because Satan and his evil followers hate God and everyone and everything associated with Him.  We wage war by the power of the Holy Spirit against the unholy desires within us (the old self) and against every ungodly pleasure and temptation of every kind.  As Christians, we are called to separate ourselves from the world.  In John 17:14, Jesus prayed for His followers to not be of the world even though they lived in the world.

 

There is war going on in the spiritual realm for every Christian person.  We must be soldiers for Christ waging war by using spiritual weapons.  It is not conducted in our own power or strength but with spiritual weapons.  That might mean we endure hardships like soldiers in war do.  We fight the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12).  We persevere and we conquer (Romans 8:37) for we do not fear the opponent of our soul (Philippians 1:28).  Nope!  We put on God’s armor and stand!

 

As we recognize veterans this week and are thankful for what they have done to keep our country free, it is good to remember those Believers who have put on the armor of God and stood against the schemes of the enemy.  May each of us encourage others to stand strong in their faith, with their armor on as they walk the narrow way to eternal life!

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB