An online lifestyle magazine for Christian women
The armor of God is absolutely essential for the Christian to put on, especially in the world and times in which we live. We are not only wrestling with our own sin nature and the sin nature of others, but we are wrestling with a spiritual enemy: the devil. As someone who has overcome a lot of mental health struggles, from psychosis to anxiety, I have experienced firsthand the power that comes from putting on this armor.
If you are not familiar with the armor of God, this is a passage written by the apostle Paul. Even if you are familiar, give it a read to refresh your memory!
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
– Ephesians 6:10-18
The battle that Paul describes in this passage is a spiritual one. Whether you believe it or not, Satan is real and he is actively seeking to destroy us. The armor is meant to help us understand how to win a spiritual battle. I believe spiritual battles could include when we are tempted to do something we know is wrong. They could also be a mental battle such as one with depression, anxiety, fear, or psychosis.
Whenever we are facing a spiritual battle, we need the armor of God to win. Each piece of this armor is important. We need to be able to understand what Paul is saying to us about it. We need to wear this armor daily, to be ready for whatever comes our way.
The very first piece of the armor is the belt of truth. Before you even can head into battle, you need to know the truth about God. The belt of truth shows us that having correct theology is very important. We need to know what is true about God and what isn’t. If we don’t, we will have no success against the enemy.
We learn truth by studying the written word of God, the Bible, and by relying on the Holy Spirit to help us correctly understand it. Before you embark on a journey of studying scripture, invite the Holy Spirit to guide you. He will help you interpret things correctly. So many people read the Bible and twist things into whatever meaning they like the best. You cannot study scripture without the Spirit’s help. Recognize your dependence on him and ask for his help to guide you.
The most important thing to remember about the breastplate of righteousness is that it does not belong to you. If you are relying on your own goodness, you will fail. Jesus died on the cross so that we might become his righteousness. We need to acknowledge that our breastplate of righteousness is a gift from Jesus.
If you think you are a good person, you won’t be able to use this breastplate properly at all. If you are broken about your sin and relying on the sacrifice of Jesus for your goodness, that’s when you will succeed in battle. I love the line from the song “Nothing but the blood of Jesus” that reads:
For my pardon, this I plead, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness – nothing but the blood of Jesus.
I like to sing this song as a reminder that my right standing with God is a gift. This gift is one that comes from Jesus sacrifice. The breastplate of righteousness is about being dependent on Jesus for our right standing with God.
This one has always been a struggle for me. When I was younger, I would experience challenging spiritual battles with anxiety or depression, and I would grow tired of resisting these feelings. I would start to resent the fact that I had to be consistent in fighting these things.
In high school, I played centerfield in softball. In softball, something we talk about when you’re fielding is having the right stance. You need to position yourself in such a way that you are ready to run to the ball, no matter which direction it goes. Ready feet enable you to respond to anything that comes your way.
In spiritual warfare, you need to have ready feet. This means that you are on alert, prepared to respond to any temptation or struggle that the devil brings to you. We can’t be complacent believers, unprepared or unwilling to go into battle. Being ready means that we are in consistent connection with God, working on our relationship. We need to be preparing ahead for battle, prepared to obey him when he asks us to do something. We must go from passive believers to active ones.
The shield of faith, “extinguishes the fiery arrows of the evil one.” This is the piece of the armor that doesn’t just block the arrows, but it puts out the fire. Faith is more than just knowing the truth about God – faith is when we believe the truth about God and believe that he will do what he says.
Perhaps you struggle with having faith. Perhaps you wrestle with doubt. No matter where your faith is right now, it can always grow and increase.
The Bible says that, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” When we listen to the word of God, through reading scripture and through allowing the Holy Spirit to speak to us, that is how our faith starts to grow.
Before I had my first episode of psychosis, a girl at my church prayed over me, led by the spirit. Something she prayed over me was that I would wear the helmet of salvation. After struggling with my mental health, I understood that this meant that I needed to be guarding my mind.
It’s important to guard your mind against thoughts that are not from God. In my case, it was thoughts that led to psychosis. For you, it could be fear, anxiety, depression, or something else. When we put on the helmet of salvation, it means protecting our mind by thinking the thoughts that God wants for us. We need thoughts that align with truth.
If we don’t have salvation, we are a slave to our sin. It is much harder to guard our minds in this state. But if we do have Jesus as our Savior, we have the ability to control our thoughts. We can fail to use this ability, and that can put us in some challenging situations.
Don’t believe the lie of the enemy that you can’t control your thinking. With God’s help, you absolutely can. Sometime it takes a little practice to wear the helmet. Getting your thoughts right is about putting good habits into place through learning the truth about God from studying the Bible. This does not always yield an instant solution – it takes practice and sometimes, help from others. But in the long run, it produces real results.
The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon in the armor of God. All of the other pieces are about protection, but this one is about overcoming. Paul says that the sword of the spirit is the Word of God. Many people believe that this is about quoting scripture to overcome temptation – and that’s true, but it’s not the whole picture.
Let’s read John 1:1, where John talks about the Word of God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
– John 1: 1-5
The Word of God is not just the scriptures. John writes, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” When the phrase, “The Word of God” is used, it’s not just his written word. It’s the living and active Word of God, God himself, which we have access to through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Does the Holy Spirit have control over your speech? Are the words of your mouth in line with what God is saying, or are they misaligned? Do your words bless or curse others? Are the words that you speak about God and others in line with truth? Do you give in to gossip, or do you speak life into people?
If you simply quote scripture in the moment when temptation strikes, but there are areas of your life in which your speech does not align with God, quoting scripture will not be as effective. If you allow the Holy Spirit to control your speech, this will give your words power and authority. This power and authority does not come from you. If you are speaking the truth about God, the power comes from the fact that you are speaking his words.
Again, there is nothing wrong with quoting scripture to combat the enemy. Jesus himself used scripture when confronted by Satan. But you need to be sure that all of your speech is in line with the Holy Spirit and that he is speaking through you in order for your words to be effective in battle.
As Paul concludes the portion he wrote about the armor of God, he reminds the reader to pray in the Spirit. What does this mean? Praying in the spirit means that we are praying and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us in prayer. This means surrendering our prayers to him and asking the spirit to intercede for us when we don’t know what to pray.
He also writes to be alert, always praying for others. Don’t just pray for yourself – pray for your friends, your family, and your community. I believe that when he tells us to be alert, he is actually inviting us to allow the Holy Spirit to prompt us to pray throughout the day as he moves us.
For me, this means that I will often be prompted to pray for people while I’m scrolling and see them in my feed on Facebook. Or someone will randomly come to my mind, and I’ll take that moment to pray for them. The Holy Spirit knows when people are in need of prayer, and can prompt us to pray for others when they need it.
If you are struggling with something, the armor of God is a great passage to meditate on and commit to memory. I’ve created some free pin-able or printable graphics that could help you with this! These were originally published on my old blog, The You Are Project, and they ended up being pretty popular on Pinterest. For this reason, I decided to make them available again with this blog post.
Print them out and use them for any non-commercial purpose you wish. I hope they help you keep the truth about the armor of God at the forefront of your mind so that you are ready to encounter anything.
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