Shield of Faith

The Bible has a lot to say about faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

How do we do this? We’ve all heard the saying, “You just have to have faith,” “Keep the faith” (assuming we had faith to begin with) or “Have faith in yourself.” Here’s the thing about faith: It must be attached to something (more specifically, someone) worthy of assurance! To “have faith” in a person can lead to disappointment. To “have faith” in yourself can put undue pressure where it doesn’t belong. Truly, God is the only one who is worthy of our faith. And “just having faith,” pulling ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps doesn’t seem like enough, does it? Yet Jesus promised that if we have the tiniest bit of faith, even the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains!

Why is it so hard to have/keep faith? Probably because we tend to have a view that is temporal and finite rather than eternal and infinite. We put faith in our circumstances and things we can see with our eyes. If we have food in our fridge, gas in our car, a roof over our head and steady income rolling in, then faith comes pretty easily. It’s when our circumstances change and things get dire that we often lose faith because we are seeing with our earthly eyes.

Our faith is meant to be eternal and should be tied to the One who is eternal (Jesus). There is such freedom in trusting Him and knowing that no matter how dark things may appear, we can have confidence in His perfect plan! Paul spoke about this in 2 Corinthians 4:18: “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

There is a spiritual battle raging around us. We don’t have to look very far to see that playing out in our culture today. Paul tells us in Ephesians 6 how to fight this spiritual battle, and one of the pieces of armor he urges us to employ is the shield of faith (vs 16). With it, he says, we can extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy. Let’s be honest: life can beat us up. Though we live in the wealthiest country in the world and have so much to be grateful for, it’s also true that we live in a fallen world where pain, deep sadness and moral filth often seem to be winning. It’s easy to get discouraged by the evil that appears to dominate our culture these days.

Here’s the good news: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). So while our faith may waver, He never does! He knows our lives from beginning to end, and He is standing there, waiting for us at the finish line! If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord Savior, He will build your faith in Him. We start small, and He strengthens our faith, often through our circumstances, as He brings us through victorious time and time again. Eventually, as we see His power, strength and faithfulness, it bolsters our faith in Him all the more, and the peace that comes from knowing we can trust Him completely is a freedom like no other!

Lord, today we pray that you would grow us in our faith. Help us to take up the shield of faith so that we may extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy, who wants to steal, kill and destroy us. We are fighting a battle that is spiritual and invisible to us, but you see all. Show us how to trust you more and to engage in the spiritual battle, bringing glory to your name. In Jesus’ name, amen.