Armor Up!

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.  For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.

Ephesians 6:12-13

In the days of the Roman Empire, soldiers knew they would be in a fight.  They knew they would most likely be executed if they ran away or refused to fight.  On the upside, once a soldiers enlistment was over, the Empire took good care of them.  The Apostle Paul was a Roman citizen (by family purchase) and was accustomed to seeing the Roman Soldiers, and probably interacted with them regularly.  He got to see their armor up close and understood why the armor was SO important to the success of the Legions.

Did you know that we are in a daily battle?  Believe it or not, our faith is under constant attack in order that our faith will become weak and/or so we will lose heart and stop fighting.  Paul was well aware of this and reminds us that we need to ARMOR UP!

Our battle is not with people. Rather we fight against the ideologies that seek to make our faith something to be manipulated and pulled apart.  I wish I could tell you that people study, and learn from, the Scriptures.  But far too many have become "soakers" who believe whatever a pastor or "religious speaker" says without every checking to see if it is actually true.  We have people in the pulpits who give "pep-talks" or motivational speeches or "feel good" talks and may or may not ever reference the Bible.

This is why we must Armor Up EVERY SINGLE DAY!  We have to be prepared for the fray every single day.  Imagine if a police officer arrived on a violent call only to remember that their weapon had rusted from lack of attention.  Imagine the soldier going into battle and realizing that they didn't remember to pack supplies to survive in a hostile environment.  Yet this is exactly what we do when we don't bother to read, study, and check out what we're being taught.

Paul reminds us that we MUST put on our armor and prepare for the battle or we will not survive.

"Never trust one who has no battle scars, for they have never been in a fight."