The Shield of Faith

"In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Ephesians 6:16

Faith is an interesting creature. I've had long discussions with people who don't believe in God at all- they see the evidence of science, and don't see all the scientific arguments for God along the way. These people see completely with their heads- and not their hearts. Faith is from the heart. There are also those who may be of a like-minded faith, but then you start stretching your faith, and you question yourself and your own faith, and you share your new growth and new beliefs, and then those people start to shy away from you. They're afraid of your faith- they don't want to be reminded that they don't share that faith that you have found.

And why is that? Why are people so afraid of faith? Maybe it's a fear of the unknown- a fear of being wrong maybe. When I think of faith, when I think of those who have an extreme faith, those people have something that I want. What they have is a different mindset. In their minds, they are praying for that disease to come out of a person because they know that God will do it. They have no doubts. Now someone of moderate faith maybe is praying for a disease to come out of a body, because God can do it, and maybe this will be the time it works. That's a huge difference! Saying that God will and God can are two completely different balls of wax. And I see where the God can people are coming from, to be honest. When someone tells me about something that can be prayed for, what I usually say is "I'll be praying for that." And I certainly do mean it when I say it, but in the back of my mind I'm thinking "why can't I just drop what I'm doing right now and pray for it right here and right now?" And that's where I struggle- with the fear.

I know, in my mind that the fear I experience in those moments is completely from the devil. He wants me to not pray for that person or that problem. And when that fear is there, faith obviously isn't. Yet I read this verse this morning, and I see faith described as a shield, so that it will extinguish those arrows of fear that the enemy is shooting at me. I really desire to have that much faith. To have the faith to know that God will and God does- not the faith for God can and God might.

My prayer today is that God will continue to deal with me on this. I know it's not going to be an overnight change, but I pray that when the time is right, that person of faith that is in me somewhere will come out roaring like a lion. That the shield of faith will come to mind and I will know no fear. Fear is a powerful enemy, and I pray that it would be gone from my heart- there's no room for it anymore. I choose faith to take its place.