Earlier this week I finished a round of what I like to call
"Captivating Therapy". To women everywhere, I highly recommend
this book by John and Stasi Eldridge as I have turned to this book for
spiritual and feminine counsel on multiple occasions since I first received and
read it. Anyway, after going through another bout with anxiety and
feeling hopeless God whispered to me to return to Captivating's pages
(something He's been telling me for a few months now) because He had many
things to teach me. One of these lessons was on spiritual warfare.
I learned that my anxiety is definitely an attack and, while people can
(and should) fight for me, I need to be able to fight for myself when it
strikes. Many people facing attacks would ask, "Why is God letting
this happen? Why isn't He just taking it away?" God will let
some attacks happen to help teach and strengthen us, and He may even use us to
help strengthen someone else going through attacks of a similar nature. In my "therapy" session, I learned that God is letting
me face these attacks because He needs me to be very strong for what I'm going
to be facing in the future, and through this latest attack He showed me that
it's time to stop relying on everyone else to help me and stand up and fight
for myself. So what does this form of fighting look like? Let me
start with a verse. Ephesians 6:10-13 says, "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 (NIV)."
From this verse we learn that there is a way to fight and protect
ourselves, and Paul even talks of armor. What is this armor? He
continues to explain, "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 (Ephesians 6:14-17)." There are six pieces of
armor that God talks about that accomplish different ways of protection.
Let's simplify them:
- Belt of Truth- We need to firmly know God's
truth in order to know what is of Him and what is of Satan. We also
need to recall His truth in times of difficult attacks. Satan kept
trying to tell me I wasn't good enough, that I didn't deserve love, that I
had to take things into my own hands if they were ever going to get done,
and that I wasn't beautiful. I had to remember the truth which was
that God loves me, finds me beautiful, that I'm more than enough for Him,
and and that He is in control so I don't need to strive to make things go
my way. God's truth offers peace, Satan's lies offer worry.
- Breastplate of Righteousness- If we are obeying God and
following his commands then it will be difficult for the devil to attack
us. If we are sinning we weaken ourselves and leave ourselves open
to Satan's schemes. When I'm struggling and participating in sin I
notice that I fall away from God and become more vulnerable to attacks.
I get more controlling, worry more, and doubt myself and my God more
and I am open to the enemy. When I am listening to and obeying God
Satan can't hurt me.
- Shoes of Readiness- Paul says that this comes
from knowing the gospel of peace. I believe that knowing the truth
about Christ, that he died for our sins, defeated the grave, and rose to
life so we can rise with him on the judgement day is what Paul is talking
about. I believe it's also about knowing Christ and having a
relationship with him. If your best friend is Christ, do you think
his opponent who highly fears him would even dare approach? We also
need to know the authority that Christ holds. When fighting off an
attack I use the authority of Jesus Christ, not God or Moses or David,
Christ.
- Shield of Faith- Knowing that God is alive, that
He has rescued you through the blood of His Son, and will continue to be
with you requires a lot of faith. I've found too that if you have a
strong faith in God you aren't as afraid of the attack since you realize
that God has something to teach you and He will rescue you if you get
overwhelmed. I know He's rescued me several times. Faith also
requires trusting God and that He will ALWAYS be there for you.
- Helmet of Salvation- Knowing that you have
received salvation is an important part of this protection. If you
still believe there is something else that must be done in order to be
truly saved then Satan will throw it at you constantly and tell you you're
not good enough. If you believe and trust in the salvation that
you've been given through Christ then there isn't much the enemy can do to
you.
- Sword of the Spirit- This is God's word.
Having Bible verses you can turn to in times of attack to remind you
of God's truth is incredibly important. It's also important to be in
the Word as often as you can because it will strengthen you in faith and
strengthen your relationship with Jesus. You'll find the verses that
speak the most to you and you'll be able to pull them out in times of
attack. One of my favorites is featured in two gospels with
different wording (Mark 8:33 and Matthew 16:23), but Jesus says "Get behind me, Satan! You are a
stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God but
merely human concerns (Matthew 16:23 NIV)." Perfectly said by our
perfect savior!
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