above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one

The fiery darts of the wicked one come in all shapes and sizes, and in fact are tailor-made for the individual in order to do the maximum damage. For me, the most devastating fiery darts came through undermining words of condemnation from those from whom I should have received affirmation. Fiery darts, penetrate the soul and go deep. Again for me, this combined with my propensity to obsess, took me out of the battle for the longest time, essentially debilitating me and making me ineffective as His warrior.

Fiery darts, come from the wicked one, from the father of lies. He is likely to whisper into the heart of one who has been abused, that is all his or her fault. When you have failed utterly, he is likely to whisper in the first person “I am a loser,” or he may tell you that God could never forgive you for that, or that if you forgive this one or that one you are letting them off the hook. Being told by a parent that you are no good, that you will never be any good, that you are just like your father/mother, this is a fiery dart. Though fiery darts can come through circumstances and take many other forms, most of the time at least for me, they come from the lies of the enemy!

And the way to deal with his lies, is to counter them with the truth. In particular, I need to learn to care more for what the Lord thinks about me, than what others think. Being a brother of Jesus, and God showing no favourites tells me that I am his beloved son, and he is well pleased with me (Mark 1:11). In his eyes, you and I are never failures. Certainly we fail, but that is not our identity. When we have no hope, and attempted to despair we need to pray with Paul that he would open the eyes of our heart that we may be enlightened in order to know the hope to which he has called us (Ephesians 1:18). This is what it means to take the shield of faith, and it is an essential part of our armour.

Father, open our eyes to know and discern when we are being pierced by a fiery dart. And help us at such times to take the shield of faith believing more what You say about us than what others, the evil one and sometimes even what we say about ourselves. Though certainly there are times when you discipline us, nevertheless Your thoughts towards us are always favourable, and You are ready willing and able to reconcile us, to comfort and strengthen us, and to set our feet upon the rock of our salvation. We praise and bless You this morning Lord that You always lead us in triumphant procession in Christ (2 Corinthians 2:14) in Jesus Name Amen