READ Ephesians 6:10-16
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Paul opens up this passage by confronting the complicated concept that there is an invisible battle going on around us. Every day, we are waging a spiritual war with an enemy that is scheming against us. This passage is designed to help us prepare for that battle. Every day. Paul says we need to suit up in order to stand our ground.
Every morning, you need to suit up. Remind yourself of each piece of spiritual armor that God has given you. It’ll give you strength even when you feel weak. It’ll give you hope even when you feel helpless. It’ll lead to truth even when you are surrounded by lies. It’ll give you victory even when you feel close to defeat.
What do you do when conflict comes? Suit up.
Think of a time when you were really scared.
One summer night, I was sleeping over at a friends house. In cliche childhood tradition, we were telling ghost stories before slipping off to sleep. While we were going back and forth swapping stories, my friend told me a terrifying tale about young girl who was killed down the road from his house (googled it, never happened). After a pause, he stuttered, “She can still be heard playing by the pond today.”
I laughed along, but I was literally screaming on the inside. As the night went on, the stories slowed down, the Pizza Rolls got cold, and we decided it was time to get some shut eye. Moments before drifting to sleep, my eyes sprung wide open as I audibly heard a droning cry echoing through the house. I assumed I was going crazy, so I just rolled over and tried to fall back asleep. Seconds later, the same sound again filled the room. My friend poked his head over the side of the bed and asked if I heard it, too.
That’s the last thing you want to happen when you’re hearing a ghost— find out someone else is hearing the same ghost. It was confirmed. We were being haunted. We were about to be eaten alive by a ghost girl from the pond.
Here is the most embarrassing part of the story: We ended up laying down weirdly close to each other…terrified for our lives. With each passing moment, the sounds seemed to grow louder. Somehow we managed to fall asleep. While we ultimately survived the night, the haunting melody never seemed to stop. The next morning, the mysterious sounds continued in the broad daylight. I’m sure you know this, but ghosts don’t moan in the morning, so we knew something was wrong here. I followed the noise until I discovered that the sound was actually coming from a speaker. I pressed the eject button and noticed a blue-colored CD emerge from the boombox. The disk was titled, “Ocean Dreams: Songs of the Whale.”
We were being haunted by the Free Willy soundtrack.
We felt all that fear over something completely fake! It’s easy to base our view of the supernatural on what we’ve seen in movies. Our minds reflect on over-the-top hauntings with levitating furniture, demon children throwing up, and clowns that live in the sewer. We have bought into this dramatized version of spiritual warfare that looks like the set of a haunted house.
Here’s the truth: Spiritual warfare is completely real; it just doesn’t look like the stuff we see on the big screen.