4MG.org

Our first lesson, and our first piece of armor, is the Shield of Faith. Perhaps you are asking yourself why we need the shield of Faith?

“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.” – Ephesians 6:10-18

Paul refers to “the devil’s schemes.” What could he mean by that?

These schemes are the things that pull us away from God. Away from knowing that we are his children and that he loves us.

And what can do that? A bunch of stuff, probably. I’m not talking about a song with a bad word in it – although as a mom, I really have to say some of those songs are pretty awful. But what I’m talking about here is sneakier and therefore harder to fight.

It’s that voice that tells you that you’re not pretty enough, or smart enough, or nice enough. Sometimes that voice is a mean girl at school, making fun of your new haircut, or a boy teasing you about the way you throw a ball in gym class. Sometimes that voice is on the tv, telling us how we need to lose weight with their magic program, or how much prettier we’ll be with their make-up, or how much more successful we’ll look with their fancy new car. And sometimes, worst of all, that voice gets in our head and tells all the things we aren’t and all the things we can’t do. 

One of God’s laws, his Commandment, is that we love our neighbors as ourselves. Well, your parents probably raised you to be nice to people, and to use manners and to obey your teachers. So “the devil’s scheme” would have to be pretty strong to get you to be mean to everyone and fresh to your teachers, right?

But what if the scheme was to make you be unkind to yourself?

What if the goal was to get you to believe that you just weren’t good enough, and that would naturally lead you to believe that God couldn’t possibly care about you. See how sneaky and evil that is? Because the ultimate goal of the devil’s scheme is to pull you away from God.

SO….

Today’s surprise is a little bracelet with one little word:  Believe

Believe in God. Believe that He loves you. Believe that you matter and that you are here for a purpose!

Another word for belief is Faith.

The Bible—both Old and New Testaments—is full of examples of people who had faith in God. One example is Noah, who built an ark because he had faith in God despite ridicule from all his friends and neighbors. Another example are Abraham and Sarah, who had a child when they were almost 100—which everyone knows isn’t possible. But God told them they would, and they believed that God always keeps his promises, and sure enough, they had a son when they were “in their old age.” 

In fact, a large part of the Bible seems to be stories to help assure us that putting our faith in God exactly what we ought to do.  Here’s one of my favorite quotes, from Jesus himself:

And Jesus said to him, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.”

– Mark 9:23

I know this is true. I’ll tell you a story from my life – in religious circles this is often called “witnessing” since I am telling you how I witnessed God working in my life. Ready?

Once upon a time, my husband and I didn’t have much money. At all. But we still had bills to pay. As is often the case when people are scared, we argued a lot. Did I pray? A little. My faith was not very strong back then. I believed in God, but I didn’t BELIEVE. So one day, I was so desperate that I got on my knees and I told God I could not do this anymore, and I asked that He help me.

And that night, I got an email from a company offering me an interview for a job. I didn’t remember applying for this job or even sending my resume anywhere because this job was not technically in my field. But because I was praying and listening for God’s answer, I believed this interview was part of his plan.

So I went. I had been a stay-at-home mom for years; all my skills were rusty; this was a big corporate job. I remember thinking at the time how strange it was that I wasn’t nervous. But the truth was that I felt this was part of God’s plan, and if He wanted me to have that job, then I would get it, and all the worrying in the world wouldn’t help if it was not meant to be.

Yes, I got the job. In fact, I worked there for years and eventually got a big promotion into department management.

But more importantly, it’s one of the first times in my life I leaned completely on God. I went to him for help, believing 100% that he would; and He did. And I learned a funny thing about believing in God. Once you see Him at work in your life, you start to see His hand everywhere.

And you start to realize that the mean person that makes an unkind comment is probably just miserable inside. You begin to realize that God loves you just the way you are so you don’t need some crazy fad diet, or some super expensive make-up or a car you can’t afford to be happy with yourself. And believing in God and His love makes it easier to replace those harsh words from your inner critic with the sort of kind and encouraging words you would say to a friend—the sort of words that God would whisper in your ear if only you could hear Him.

So on those days when you doubt yourself, or you know you will likely encounter a bully, or maybe you have a job interview…  put on your bracelet and know that Faith is your shield from the devil’s schemes in your life.