Why?
Do others sometimes hurt or annoy you? They have me and it’s not always been someone I don’t get along with, sometimes it’s been those closest to me. Why? We love these people in our lives so why do we get irritated by them? Maybe your first thought is sin and yes, you would be right but let’s dig a little deeper.
I love the book of Ephesians and today I decided to go to the end of the book and look again at my favorite part in chapter six where Paul speaks of the armour of God.
Verse ten begins with Paul telling us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Not to be strong in ourselves, not to try harder, not to work harder at controlling our sinful nature but to be strong in the Lord. How? In the power of His might, not in our own might, power our wisdom but in the Lord’s.
‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.’
We’re instructed to put on the whole armour of God. Every…. Single…. Piece! So that we can stand against the wiles of the devil. Friends, the devil has so many schemes, tricks and lies to use against us and the only hope we have of prevailing against him is as we stand in Christ, covered from head to toe with the whole armour of God.
Now we get to verse twelve and this is what I particularly wanted to share with you. Remember how I started, talking about getting annoyed and the cause of it. Well maybe you and your husband disagree on something, or one of your little ones is constantly being naughty, you’re exhausted and it’s just making you so frustrated.
Think….are they your enemy? Is your dear husband, or your precious child your enemy? Or even that person who has always been unkind to you? No, of course not, then who is? Let’s look at verse 12.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
We see here that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, not against people, whoever they may be. When others hurt or annoy us our battle is against the devil and all the forces of evil.
They are relentlessly seeking to create havoc in the world and discord in our lives and in particular the lives of God’s children.. A force that we can never overcome…
‘But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’
So many things may feel to be against us BUT… We will gain the victory through Jesus Christ as we fight, not with anything of ourselves but in and through Christ with the whole armour of God.
The Christian has six (or seven if you include v18,) items in their Armory. Five of these are for our protection and two to fight with.
For our protection, truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith and salvation . vs 14-17 And our weapons? The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God v17 and prayer v18.
It would take too long to write about all that I learnt here but let’s take a quick look at our weapons, how are we to fight? Our sword is the wonderful truths, commands and precious promises that we find in our Bible and our other weapon is prayer, but not just prayer, it’s praying always.
Do You Have Your Armour on to Protect you when others hurt or annoy you?
Do we have our armour on? We need daily protection from the assaults of the devil and the powers of darkness. We need to be carrying our weapons about with us in our hearts everywhere we go. And we need to keep our armour bright by reading our Bible, not letting it gather dust.
Are we always standing alert in prayer. God doesn’t just give us these commands for certain times and seasons, they’re for every day!
How far short I know that I fall friends. What grace and help we need each and every day to even be ready to stand. BUT…
’My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.’
So next time others hurt or annoy you remember that our battle is not against them but against an enemy whom God has equipped us to fight.
Your friend in the battle
Sharon x
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First Published October 2017
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