Above all take the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Evil one

“How goes the battle?” ‘Getting through against incredible odds!’ Do you feel that life is a battle? It seems to me, that there is a war on two fronts. First of all is the outward war, you know the stuff that happens, the things that trip you up, the mean things that people say and do. Then there is the inter war, the war for sanity if you like. For me, for the longest time, the interwar was the fiercest. I used to paraphrase the Scripture that comes four verses before the one in the title of this post (Ephesians 6:12) as “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but we do wrestle!”

Some would ridicule the belief that there is a devil. It seems to me though, that one of his lies is that he does not exist. For me it’s very helpful to know that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. In other words, other people are not the enemy. What I mean is that when somebody does, or says something mean, I can think of it as being the evil one using that person to try and get to me. So that the meanness is ultimately prompted by the one who hates my soul. And this helps me to deal with it. In particular, I remember that it is part of the war, and I can recognize it as a fiery dart.

When I see this, I know what to do, I can quench that fiery with the shield of faith. For example I can take authority over my tendency to obsess on what has happened, and in faith, replace my negative thoughts by believing the truth. And the truth is that I am loved by Almighty God, I am a favourite son, and what He thinks about me, which is always encouraging, is far more important than what is happening, and what other people are saying to, or about me.

Another part of what it means to take the shield of faith, is to believe what He says in His Word. For instance “We know, that God works all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28), or “I will never leave you know forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5), or “Come on to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). In this way I can allow the incident to draw me closer to the Lover of my soul. When I learn to do this consistently, the fiery darts are indeed quenched!

Father, thank You that this faith stuff is intensely practical. Thank You that as I draw close to You I am increasingly able to rise above the circumstances, and increasingly able to enter into the joy You have promised. I praise and bless and worship Your holy name this morning. In Jesus Name Amen