As the alarm clock rings and Monday’s duties stretch before us let’s take a few minutes to consider the condition of our spiritual armor. No matter where this day takes you, whether corralling children through another day of school, heading to work, going to school ourselves, any combination of these, or even being on vacation, if we are not spiritually prepared, Satan will exploit our weaknesses. Let’s read Ephesians 6:10-18, and deliberately put these items on this morning.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.” (Ephesians 6:10-13)

There are a couple of important things that are not said in these verses. If we miss them we can easily miss the point of the whole passage. First of all, we are told we do NOT stand ALONE. As we face the struggles of daily life we tend to remember the ‘be strong’ part of verse 10, and forget the ‘in the Lord and in the strength of his might.’ I am most prone to forgetting this when a challenge comes on me by surprise. But verse 11 tells us this armor protects us, and verse 13 reminds us that when we have taken the actions to apply this armor we will be able to stand firm.

The second important truth we must retain from these introductory passages is who our enemy is. As we go from one awful commute to the long, irritating meeting, to the upsetting conference with our child’s teacher, to the well-meaning but critical sister who insults our bulletin board we can easily find ourselves angry with all of these people. Then turn on the late news and learn about the latest murders and fights between politicians and we just want to run away. We must remember who the struggle is really with. We are spiritual beings living in a physical world, and we are fighting a spiritual war. We battle spiritual enemies, not physical people. A rapid review in our minds of the activities of Satan as recorded in the Bible help us see that he is the ultimate hurtful enemy and knows us intimately. He will find our weak spots daily and poke them repeatedly, using whoever happens to be around, even using our own expectations against us. It is for this reason, to be able to stand against this enemy, we must cover ourselves completely with the armor of God. And one important good result of that protection is our ability to still love the people around us, rather than holding them in contempt.

Now, the armor itself. “Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” (Ephesians 6:14) That which holds us together, keeps us from falling apart in the face of evil and gives us direction in how to respond is the gospel of Christ and his righteous example. No matter what sources accuse us, attack our worth, or attempt to convince us we cannot handle the challenge we face, those sources are evil lies. If the devil can get us to dissolve into a tearful heap on the floor with pain or tragedy, if he can persuade us to run away from truth with distracting entertainment rather than reach out to help someone whose life has dissolved into a mess, he has succeeded. We have the power to respond to the challenges we face as individuals because we have Jesus’ example to follow. We know his first priority was to obey his Father. His most important priority was to show Agape love-that which seeks the highest good of the other person-in every circumstance.

“and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the gospel of peace.” (Ephesians 6:15). I once tried to hike a wet, snowy trail in tennis shoes. If you have ever done anything similar to that, you know that it did not end well. I literally had ½ inch of water in my shoes, which ended my hiking for that day. If we try to go into the spiritual battle with the wrong shoes on we will get knocked out of the fight pretty fast, and probably be injured. Notice that our foundation, what we stand for must be the gospel of peace. We fight a spiritual battle, but in doing so we are dealing with a lot of people. And people are notorious for NOT getting along peacefully! As the voices get louder and the mood becomes more volatile, the Christian who can remember to treat others the way they would want to be treated, who can offer the soft answer that turns away wrath can bring calm, as well as give credibility to their argument. People expect to be treated with hostility and disregard much of the time. Offering respect and care will sometimes stop a fight before it can get started.

“In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” (Ephesians 6:16-18a)

Our obedient, active faith, meeting each opportunity and task from the perspective of a soul saved by the precious blood of Jesus-helmet of salvation-defends us from all the nuisance attacks we get hit with. I think of this like wearing bug repellent when I camp. If I did not have the repellent I would never be able to focus my attention where I wanted to because I was always swatting bugs. Satan wants us off course. He knows what worries us, what irritates us. Are you a person who always has to be on time? Count on things threatening that punctuality when it is most important. What will be your response? What about health issues? Is your perfect health critical to your happiness and peace, what would happen to you if you lost it? Could you adapt? When we have the helmet of salvation, the spiritual perspective, backed by the truth of God’s word, we can stand firm. But we accomplish this firmness through ongoing prayer and supplication. Nowhere in this passage is an expectation given that the faithful Christian stands alone, sucking it up and going on without help.

No matter what your Monday, your week brings, I hope these few minutes of spiritual preparation, meditating on the state of your Christian armor, will be a blessing to you. May God be with you.

– Teresa Stickler