Armor of God

These Sunday School lessons are being posted for MY Tonia!!! (Not because she asked...hehehe (: !!) We miss you.

Ephesians chapter six is probably one of the most familiar chapters in the bible, but I felt that the Lord wanted me to teach it to my tiny class and the youth a couple of weeks ago.

The point I think we need to go home with is this: Be strong IN the Lord and IN the strength of His might. Put on GOD'S armor so that you may be able to stand.

1 John 3:8 says that Jesus came into the world to destroy the deeds of the devil, but He won't be doing that completely til the end of all things. That means that we have to do battle IN Christ's armor and strength in this life. If we are not "wrestling", then we are not engaged in battle. Like good soldiers we must remain prepared for battle at all times.

As Christians, our goal is to bring glory to the Father (Col. 3:17; 1 Cor. 10:31; 1 Peter 4:11). This is not an easy task, in fact it's an impossible task if we try to do it in our strength. (The Spirit does the work,and we work with Him.) We seem to think that we have no responsibilities as Christians except to avoid the "big stuff". We don't act at all like there are any "spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places". We think,"it's all good". We are wrong if we think that. We must always remember that there will be battles.

Verses 13-18 give us a clear picture of our call: stand. Stand in the strength and might of God, but STAND. We are told to stand in God's truth, stand in righteousness, stand in the readiness given by the gospel of peace, stand in the faith, and stand in salvation. The only defensive weapon we have is God's word--our sword.

Now, if we were in a battle that is "seen" and we were given armor and told to stand we'd want a weapon. (By the way, standing is the opposite of falling and retreating.) We'd also want to know how to use that weapon effectively. How many of us know how to use the only defensive weapon we've been given? How many of us don't even believe it to be important to know the weapon or believe the weapon can help us? We are told to pray at all times and keep alert with all perseverance, but if we don't have our weapon and all God's armor we won't be able to stand.

We are bombarded by the fiery darts of the enemy daily whether through television, music, books, friends, teachers and even our own flesh (thought life, weaknesses). If we are going to STAND then we must daily put on the armor of God and be strong IN the Lord and IN the strength of HIS MIGHT. We must do what He has told us to do. He is our Commander in Chief and He has given us a directive, through Jesus and all the apostles particulary Paul, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." (Eph. 6:13)

So, prepare for battle through prayer, bible STUDY and submission to Christ and His commands. We wouldn't be very good soldiers if we didn't prepare for battle, would we?

God Bless you as you stand.