Faith

How fitting it is for "the shield of faith" to follow truth, righteousness, and the preparation of the gospel of peace (Eph. 6:16). Faith is the instrument by which the unsaved came to salvation (Eph. 2:8) and continues to be of paramount importance in the life of a saved person. Paul said, "We walk by faith, no by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). Though unspecified in this passage, he believed that this faith works "through love" (Gal. 5:6). To him, love and faith went together (Eph. 6:23). He would have agreed with John that faith is the victory that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4), because here he depicted faith as a defensive shield to ward off fiery-tipped arrows the devil's emissaries aim at Christians. Arrows of all kinds seek to penetrate God's people: arrows of disunity (Eph. 4:2,3); unholy anger expressed or unexpressed (vv. 25-32); sexually permissive thoughts, words, or acts (5:3-7); temptations to indulge in drunkenness (v. 18); attitudes that threaten joy, thanksgiving, and submission (vv. 19-21); unloving attitudes and acts instead of Christlike love (vv. 22-33); and more.

The previous paragraph is from an article on faith from Pastoral Ministry by John MacArthur; pg 139. As I was reading this article, or chapter, I couldn't help but agree with the author about the firey darts that are thrown to Christians today and I have a sense of concern that we let some of them penetrate our hearts, minds, attitudes, love, etc... This I believe is a major cause of disunity in the church, because we don't sometimes put on the armor of God and allow it to make us strong in our battles. We as a body of Christ have to learn how to use the faith that is in Jesus to fight our battles. When the enemy throws something at us we need to pray and look at Scripture to make us strong in our faith and let it fight off the wiles of the devil.

Remember what the Bible says in Hebrews 11:1 "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". Be certain in your battle against the enemy today and use all the weapons of our warfare from God. We should take confidence in the fact that we have a tool in the army of God that is both defensive and offensive that we can use to fight the enemy with. Let your faith be strengthened today as you get closer to God through prayer. Prayer is the battle.