Good Wednesday morning! The scripture calling out to me lately comes from 1 Peter 5. You will remember the one about how our adversary the devil stalks about like a roaring lion seeking to devour whom he may. Here is the exact verse from the ESV: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8
I finished the book from Adrian Rogers yesterday, the book is Unveiling the End Times in Our Time if you want to get it, and near the end he spoke of this verse and said that we should be watchful like we would if a real lion was loose in our neighborhood. That got me to thinking of course. Imagine that very scenario, but instead of just watching out the windows of your house, you need to be outside watching. Choose a view outside your home that has hidden places. You cannot see every place in your view: fences, hedges, other buildings and cars allow the lion places to hide out of your direct view. You have only the clothes on your body and your hands and feet if the lion should decide to attack you. Pretty frightening! That is how those who refuse to believe in Jesus face that lion the Devil. Naturally they are easy prey.
Now, imagine the same scene, but God has given you a suit of armor. We tend to imagine the Roman armor with lots of holes and skin showing, not much protection really. But God gives us armor that is more like those storm trooper fellows we see on the Star Wars movies. That isn't a perfect metaphor either because I don't recall that armor doing any of those guys any good in any of the six movies, but we are looking at bodily coverage here. The belt of truth is more of a girdle covering your hips and upper thighs. The boots of peace go all the way up and over that girdle. Some versions of the Bible use "shoes" as the translation, but that doesn't give the impression of enough coverage to me. Above the girdle and boots is the breastplate of righteousness. This mates to the girdle below and covers all of the torso, upper arms and neck. The helmet of salvation covers the entire head and face. No holes for the lions claws to penetrate. Now, something is missing from this. Yes, the gauntlets or gloves. Why did Paul not give us armored gloves in our whole armor?
Paul probably used his Roman guards as a model, and their armor when guarding prisoners would have been much less than the full combat suit we tend to imagine. A better model might have been the knights from the Middle Ages, but Paul used what he had. Perhaps Paul left the hands free to help others. In combat the hands hold the shield of faith and the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Against this lion we are well prepared in Christ. Now imagine yourself standing against that physical lion in real armor. We'll use titanium and carbon-fiber for the weight advantages. This armor has a comforting weight. Enough so that you know it is there, but not so little that if feels too weak. The armor feels right, strong enough to deflect any attack from the lion's teeth or claws. Then you have a big shield in case he throws something at you and a sword to strike him with. Sounds a lot better!
Now we run into one of the problems. Instead of imagining a sword, imagine you hold a machine gun with all that armor on. You pass confidence and become cocky. That is when the lion sneaks up behind you, makes the slightest noise to get your attention, and hooks the rug out from under you. With a mighty clatter you crash to the ground. The lion walks up, sits on your helmet and piddles into the visor. Yuck! But that is what sin does to us when we get cocky instead of standing confidently in Christ. God didn't give us a gun with His armor because it is not within our power to destroy the Devil or even the least of his demons.
The other problems comes in the spiritual realm. Paul said that our shield of faith was to be used to quench the fiery darts of the Devil. How often does it feel like your shield is nothing but empty air? You look back on the day, but it seems like every dart went right through your shield and breastplate and burned right into your heart. That seems to happen to me quite a bit. The Devil cannot defeat God's armor, so he took to throwing those flaming arrows or darts. Over the centuries we can see that he has become quite the marksman. The flaming arrows seem to home right in on any chinks or holes we have left in our armor. If you are tempted easily by sexual sin, the arrows will zip some images right into your thoughts. If your weakness is in other areas, you can count on the Devil's arrows hitting there with unerring accuracy. Part of the problem is in looking at the enemy and saying, "man, he's really good at what he does!" Yes the Devil is, but God is still God, and He alone is sovereign. That armor is better than we know and we do not stand alone.
God knows your weaknesses too, and He does allow the trials to strengthen and refine each of us. Look at it this way. If some disease invaded your body and began destroying cells, but produced no symptoms that you could detect such as fever, chills, coughing, and others, you and your bodily defenses would do nothing about it and suddenly you would drop dead when enough cells had been destroyed. Sin works much the same way on our spirit. The Holy Spirit points out the holes in our armor to us, and works to close them. We tend to resist this closing and the Devil does his part by shooting his darts into those holes. The part that resists the closing is that treacherous sinful nature we also call the lusts of the flesh. What are we to do?
Take heart! God knows all about the Devil and his ways, the lust of the flesh we inherited from Adam's sin, the weaknesses in our armor, and how far along the Spirit's work has progressed in us. God also knows his own strength and ways, the cleansing work of the Spirit, and the strength of the armor He gave us. God also knows the power of His Son's sacrifice on the cross and the fact of His resurrection. We do not stand alone!
Have a marvelous new day in Jesus!
Bucky
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