God's Shield of Faith Provides Protection

In summary of Ephesians 6:16 it says,

“At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One.”

Bottom Line:

Use the shield of faith, it can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One.

What this means to me

The enemy will do all he can to distract me, cast doubts, and cast burning arrows my way.  This verse reminds me to always carry with me and use the shield of faith, as it can extinguish and stop what the enemy casts my way.  Because I have decided to be a follower of Jesus, I have fiery darts coming at me all the time (I’m a target.). His fiery darts are items Satan implants into the thoughts of my mind such as:

• Doubt. asking myself, “Did God really say? Can I really trust God? Isn’t that just your interpretation?”
• Discouragement. Satan tells me, “I’m never going to get any better. My life won’t change. I shouldn’t even try.
• Delay. I start asking myself, “Why is this taking so long?”
• Difficulty. I ask myself, “Why is this so hard? Why is it so hard to make _______ work? Why is it so hard to do ______?”
• Depression. I tell myself, “It’s not worth it.”
• All these darts can come my way on a regular basis. They create uncertainty in my life. In times of great uncertainty these fiery darts will fly even faster. My best action is to just be ready for them.

Paul provides me with a proper antidote to these fiery darts: the Shield of Faith. The Bible says, “At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One” (Ephesians 6:16 GNT). The Shield of Faith is my only protection against doubt, discouragement, delay, difficulty, and depression. I need to Trust God, no matter what I see, hear, or feel about the world around me. I need the certainty of God when I face the uncertainty of Satan’s fiery darts.  In short, I’ll need to learn how to doubt my doubts and believe my beliefs. Most other normally do the opposite. They doubt their beliefs and believe their doubts. The truth I need to hold onto is, “God said it, and that settles it.” God’s truth isn’t based on whether I believe it or not. It’s still true even if when I don’t believe it, because God can’t lie.  It is the certainty that God’s promises are true even when they don’t appear to currently be true in my life.  Whenever I start believing my doubts and doubting my beliefs, Satan cracks a door open in my life, and he’ll use that door to attack me on many levels.  I can’t ever take off the Shield of Faith, either. Paul tells me to wear it “at all times.” Satan will never stop throwing his fiery darts at me. I am to stay on my guard. Trust God and his Word, no matter what’s going on in life.