The Shield of Faith

Bible Passage: Ephesians 6:16

The shield of faith is the fourth item of armour listed in this chapter. It is one of the things given to believers by God in order to stand firm against the enemy. One of the weapons that Satan deploys in order to derail us is doubt, and particularly doubt about God and his promises. To combat this, we have been given faith, by which we can take God at his word and not be crippled by the ‘flaming arrows’ that are fired our way.

Flaming Arrows of the Evil One: One of the tactics of the enemy to undermine believers is to question God’s word. This goes right back to the serpent’s question in the Garden of Eden, where he asked ‘did God really say?’ This can also be seen in the “if you are the Son of God” that Jesus was asked during the temptation. this same tactic is used against Christians today, as flaming arrows of doubt are fired our way to challenge faith. We should be clear that not all doubt falls into this category. Some of the time we are wrestling with good and helpful questions that seek to match up scripture and experience with what we know of God’s character. Other times we are refining our understanding from ways that we may have been taught to see for ourselves the true picture of God in the Bible. But still other times the doubts are less part of a journey of understanding God and instead are lies that pop into our minds challenging his goodness or faithfulness. These are designed to lead us away from him and into destruction, and it is this kind of doubt that the flaming arrows are speaking of.

Faith and God’s Promises: The key to faith is not forcing ourselves to believe something with no grounds to do so. Rather, it is trusting God at his word. The foundation of faith is what God has said, and even if we haven’t yet seen the fulfilment of those things, we can hold onto them because God saying it is enough. In the Bible, we have specific promises that God has made, and we are also given a clear understanding of God’s character and know that he will always be true to who he is. In addition many individuals and churches are holding onto specific prophetic words and promises that have been weighed and that they believe to be from God. These promises give a foundation to believe and stand strong against the lies or doubts that come our way.

Using Faith As a Shield: In the armour, faith is depicted by the image of a shield. The shield is something that can be raised to block the arrows that are being fired at the soldier, and Paul is encouraging the believer to use faith in such a way when lies and doubts come our way. Practically, this means that as we wrestle with such thoughts, we are to remind ourselves of God’s promises. An example of this is Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11, where every lie or temptation that came his way was countered with a truth from scripture. Perhaps there are particular promises that are helpful for an individual, and it may be helpful to memorise these or to have them displayed in a place that you will see them a lot. This is also something that we can do in community, and one benefit of being part of a church is that others can remind us of the promises and help us raise the shield when doubt comes our way.

Potential Applications:

• There will be some people in the room right now battling lies and doubts from the enemy. Speak out some promises of God from Scripture for people to take as the shield in their own situations.
• Invite people to reflect on one particular promise of God that is significant to them and invite them to put it somewhere they will see (e.g. on their mirror or their phone lock screen).
• You could offer prayer ministry for those who are struggling to resist certain thoughts that they know are from the enemy.