Taking Up the Shield of Faith
The Apostle Paul admonishes the believer to put on the “armor of God,” including the “shield of faith” (Ephesians 6: 10-18).
Why a “shield of faith?” Why not a “shield of hope” or a “shield of love?” After all, the Apostle Paul tells us in his influential (and worth memorizing) 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians that “these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love” (NIV, verse 13). What makes “faith” so metaphorically and spiritually superior as a “shield” to guard against the “flaming arrows of the enemy” (Ephesians 6: 16)?
From the Apostle Paul’s “armor of God” metaphor, the shield of faith is specifically designed to protect the soldier from the devil’s “fiery darts.” One needn’t feast on scores of YouTube video scenes of Satanic-horror films to realize the variety of fiendish strategies of our ultimate Enemy. The devil’s attack mechanisms, “flaming arrows,” are not only designed to destroy Christ-honoring presence and activity, but to consume whole environments—fiery darts that easily ignite fires burning down houses once filled with grace.
Sometimes the “flaming arrows” are chaotic voices competing with the voice of God seeking to immobilize us with lies from the pit of hell, lies that seek to bully and bury us in fear.
So, why a “faith shield?” As mentioned in a previous blog post, the characteristics of such protective faith acting as a shield are really no different than the “faith” that governs and guides any interpersonal relationship, whether with a best friend, business partner, or ministry colleague—essentially, anyone you have to trust. Friendships and partnerships require interpersonal faith to function and that faith needs to be protected. For friendships to continue, each participant must have faith in, must trust, their friend’s ability to, essentially, keep their promises.
Central to our Christian “faith” is the confidence that God can be trusted to keep His promises!
And the promises of God, and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ—who “does not lie” (Titus 1: 2)—give us ultimate assurances providing confidence and spiritual stability in the midst of our battles. While experiencing tensions and insecurities, sometimes we need moment-by-moment reminders: “What am I going to believe, the promises of God or the fiendish threats of the enemies of God’s kingdom?”
Throughout the Bible, God admonishes us to enter life’s battles with courage. But the admonition, “take courage!” is never asserted without His assurances to be with us (see, for instance, Joshua 1: 7-9). The “shield of faith” are those courage-building promises of God that thwart and dismantle the competing threats, the “flaming arrows” of the devil.
So, practically speaking, what might it mean to “pick up” this “shield of faith” in our day-to-day spiritual battles? Let me suggest that it is a lot like the description of the prophet Jeremiah, the traditionally-recognized writer of the Lamentations, chapter 3, verses 17-23.
The prophet was almost immobilized with depression. He describes himself as being “deprived of peace,” and has forgotten any well-being. He was beginning to lose any sense of hope, and his mind is filled with the depth of his “afflictions,” even “bitterness.” He notes that his soul was “downcast.”
And then he describes something remarkable in the midst of his despair— “Yet this I call to mind (italics mine) and therefore have hope.” He decides to re-affirm an over-arching truth that ultimately puts his anxieties in an eternal context. What he decides to re-affirm, what he “calls to mind” is this:
“It is because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness!”
Jeremiah, nearly knocked-out with anxiety in the midst of the battles within and all around him, takes up a reassuring truth that gets him up and ready for battle. This act of mental retrieval—calling it “to mind”—is likened to the act of taking up, picking up the “shield of faith.”
The fact is whenever we’re in a battle, whenever circumstances around us appear to be threatening, we will call something to mind. Are we in the habit of “calling to mind” the truths of God’s eternal provision? Are we taking up the “shield of faith?”
Paul D. Patton, Ph.D., is a professor of communication and theater at Spring Arbor University in Michigan. He has graduate degrees in Guidance and Counseling, Religious Education, and Script and Screenwriting, and a doctorate in Communication with an emphasis in theater arts. He has been married to his wife Beth for over forty years and has three daughters (all actresses)—Jessica, Emily, and Grace, three sons-in-law, David, Joe, and Eric, and four grandsons, Caleb Rock, Logan Justice, Micah Blaze, and Miles Dean.