Ephesians 6:11-13 “Put on all the armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil, because wrestling against flesh and blood is not to us, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world's rulers, of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenlies. Because of this, take up all of the armor of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having worked out all things, to stand.”
I have a friend who works in a police department. One day he stopped by my place to drop something off and then was headed out to the fairgrounds to do police duty while the fair was still in town. I noticed he looked a little bulkier than usual and asked him what he had on to make himself look that way. He rapped his knuckles on his chest and said, “I'm wearing a bullet-proof vest.” It was a hot day and our fair isn't a large fair so I asked him why he had to wear such a thing when it was so hot and the fair was only a small thing. He said, “I always wear this. I never go on police duty without it. You never know when something might happen and it will be what saved my life.”
The Christian should start each day dressing themselves in the armor of God. The Christian fight is not between people on this earth that can be seen, but between spiritual powers that cannot be seen. The Christian needs to be able to withstand the wiles of the devil. The word “wiles” means a methodized, well laid art, skill, or cunning. The devil has various arts and strategies to drag down souls away from God. The only way a Christian can possibly fight him is to give the fight over to God and the way to do that is to arm themselves with the tools God has given us. The minute we lay down a piece of that armor and try to fight the battle on our own, we start to lose.
My police friend felt safe and confident with his bullet-proof vest. He was always watchful, but not fearful. The same can be said for the Christian. It's good to be watchful of those things that pull us away from God, but never fearful that the devil with snatch us away without our consent. Our God is so much bigger than the devil. The devil has no power over God. As long as we daily tuck ourselves safely in the arms of God and are dressed in His armor, we are safe.
In the next few lessons, we will be looking at each piece of armor that is mentioned to get a better understanding of how we are to put on the armor and how to use it.