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 not easy.
When everything in the world tells you to believe one thing… When everyone says you are crazy to believe something else…
When you can’t see what you hope for…
How do you keep it up? How do you hold onto your faith?
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. (Hebrews 11:1)
Sometimes having faith is hard. Your faith feels heavy.
Just like I am sure the huge shield was heavy. A solid sheet of steel, covered in wood and leather, is no joke to lift.
It was hard!
So how did the Roman soldier get better at lifting it?
By lifting it every day.
At first it was heavy, and clumsy, and kept feeling like it was holding him back. It would be easier to just drop it and run.
But he kept lifting it, day after day. And only by doing the heavy lifting, was he able to strengthen his shield arm to carry the shield.
We need to strengthen our faith, but doing some “heavy lifting”. The more we choose to hold onto our faith, and keep holding onto it, the stronger our lifting arm will become, and the easier it will be to have faith.
The more we rely on faith, the more our faith is rewarded.
I think it is important to note that when Paul wrote this the people would have always though of the Phalanx, which requires specific uses of the shield so that you are helping the soldiers around you with their burden. Faith was never meant to be held by the lone soldier.
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention that p4c, because if you come back on Wednesday, we will be looking at that very point.
ReplyDeleteHoo Ha Ha!